Marvel Elementary
by CutieLemon07
Summary: The Avengers all have their own problems. The question is how will they deal with them being elementary school students? AU. Be prepared to relive some of the stupid things you may have done when you were kids. Includes other Marvel characters, such as X-Men, GOTG, Inhumans, Deadpool and more. Rated T to be safe.
1. Sam's First Day

Sam Wilson inhaled deeply and put his hand on the door handle, retracting it quickly after a few seconds. He whimpered to himself, before furrowing his brow and inhaling, once more putting his hand on the door handle. He tried so hard to push the handle down, but it wouldn't go. He grunted softly.

"Okay Sam. You can do this." He said, taking a deep breath and pushing the door open, closing his eyes and holding his breath as he walked through. All noise from behind the door stopped and when Sam opened his eyes, he realized why. All eyes were on him.

"You must be Sam Wilson." A kindly voice said with a slight accent that Sam couldn't place. Sam looked up at the man addressing him and nodded. "I'll be your teacher, Mr. Selvig." The man said smiling. Sam nodded again. "Why don't you tell us about yourself?" Sam looked at him again and shook his head fiercely. "No? Well, okay." The man shrugged. "There's an empty seat over next to Clint and Phil, why don't you take that?" He offered. Sam simply shrugged and found the empty seat and sat down. He raised his head nervously and glanced over at the two boys sitting next to him.

The boy on his left had light brown hair and he was wearing a black hoodie with a purple t-shirt. That's okay, right? After all, it's not pink.

The boy to his right was wearing glasses had dark brown hair-in fact, it almost looked black-and he was wearing blue jeans, a blue zip up hoodie unzipped just low enough that it exposed a _Green Lantern _t-shirt. Sam put his head down and noticed the boy was also wearing blue _Converse_. Sam didn't have to guess what this boy's favorite color was.

Sam looked over his shoulder to see a brown haired girl listening intently to Mr. Selvig and vigorously scrawling notes. Sam put his head in his arms and groaned softly. After a few seconds, he felt something tap on his shoulder.

"Psst! Hi!" Sam looked up. It was the boy on his right-glasses boy. "Yeah, hi!" He whispered more enthusiastically. Sam looked at him stoically, not saying a word. "You don't know my name?" He asked. Sam continued his neutral expression. "I'm Philip, but everyone calls me Phil." No change in Sam's expression. "You like comic books?" Phil asked. "I _love_ comic books!" He beamed. Sam turned his head away from Phil and put his head in his arms again. "Oh. Okay." Phil said, feeling hurt. "But _Green Lantern_ is my favorite comic." He added, just so the new boy would know. Phil looked over at the boy to Sam's left and the boy to Sam's left looked over to Phil, who shrugged. They shared weird hand movements for a few minutes before Sam lifted his head and looked at their odd method of communication.

"What... What are you doing?" He mumbled.

"ASL. American Sign Language." Phil informed him proudly. "Clint is deaf. He can't hear so we use our hands to talk to each other."

"So you're friends?" Sam asked. He looked over at Clint, who smiled back at him. Quickly, he turned his head to look at Phil, who was moving his hands again. Sam looked quickly back at Clint who smiled and nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah. We have other friends, but we're friends with each other too." Clint happily said. Sam's eyebrows knitted together as he turns his gaze towards Phil.

"You said he couldn't hear."

"He can't. I said what you said, but with my hands."

"The word you're looking for, Phil, is 'translated'." Sam looked behind. It was the brown haired girl and she looked smug with herself. Sam looked back at Phil, whose eyes were closed.

"Thank you, Jane." He said sarcastically.

"Don't be snarky with me, Phil."

"Don't interrupt my conversations, JANE!" Phil said louder.

"Phil, Jane, is something going on?" Mr. Selvig asked.

"No, Mr. Selvig." The two said, sheepishly. Clint made some hand movements, which didn't go unnoticed by Mr. Selvig.

"Thank you, Clint." He said, kindly, moving his hands as he talked. Clint looked at Phil with his head cocked and a big smile on his face. Sam looked confused and shrugged at the teacher. "Clint informed me that Jane interrupted your conversation, though you really shouldn't have been talking anyway."

"Sir, I asked about 'this'." He said quietly, waving his hands as he talked.

"Ah!" Mr. Selvig smiled in realization that the new boy didn't know about Clint's communication issue. "Teachable moment, kids." He set down his textbook and picked up a dry wipe pen. He drew a stick figure. "Clint Barton," He began as he labelled the stick figure 'Clint'. "As most of you know, is deaf." He said, crudely drawing a picture of an ear and struck a line through it as he said 'deaf'. "He can't hear." Sam saw Clint smiling and nodding from the corner of his eye. "How do we talk to him and any other deaf kids?" Mr. Selvig asked. He looked around the room as he awaited a response. "You can't." He said. "So we use a different form of communication." He scrawled the letters "A", "S" and "L" on the whiteboard. "American Sign Language." He said, signing it out, slowly and carefully. "While all you that are able to hear can listen to my words, I can move my hands and body in certain ways that Clint is able to_ see_ my words." Sam's eyes open wide in awe. "ASL is primarily used by deaf people, people who can't talk or express themselves well and their friends and relatives." Mr. Selvig picks up his textbook once again. "Of course, it would also be useful for spies and deadly assassins too." He adds under his breath.

Sam turns to see Phil signing excitedly to Clint. Sam turns to Clint who looks down at his backpack before gently kicking it under his chair. He brought his finger to his lips and smirked mischievously.

Feeling uneasy, Sam asked "What's in there...?"

"You'll find out later." Phil's expression mirrored that of Clint's.

* * *

><p>In the cafeteria that lunch time, Sam had just paid for his meal of pizza, fries and <em>Jell-O<em> and was looking for a place to sit when he heard a voice call out rather loudly; "Come sit with us, my new friend!" He turned around and saw a boy with long blonde hair wave excitedly at him. Phil and Clint were also there. Sam figured that the blonde haired boy and the others were their friends and went to sit with them.

"H-hi." He stuttered.

"Hey! You made it!" Phil said. He and Clint exchanged sign language with each other.

"What's he saying?" Sam asked.

"He said 'I _still_ don't know his name' and honestly, neither do I." Phil said thoughtfully.

"It's Sam." He said, poking his fries listlessly with his fork. "Sam Wilson."

"Well, you know Clint Barton already, I'm Phil Coulson-but you knew that too." Phil smiled.

"I'm Natasha." A red headed girl said. "Natasha Romanoff and yeah, it's Russian." She smiles, eating a fry. "Because my parents and I are Russian immigrants."

"Steve Rogers." The short, scrawny kid next to him said. He had dirty blonde hair and big blue, expressive eyes. "And this is the best friend I have in the world, James Barnes." He said, putting a hand around a long brown haired boy. They both smiled.

"Everyone just calls me 'Bucky' though."

"Why?" Sam asks, looking puzzled at the pair.

"My middle name. It's Buchanan." Bucky shrugged as he lifted his pizza up to his mouth. Sam could see that Bucky's left arm wasn't real and it sent a brief shiver down his spine.

"I am Thor and this is my twin brother Loki!" Sam looked over to the other end of the table. It was the excitable blonde haired boy and he was wearing a t-shirt with the image of a Pop Tart on it, much like how Steve and Bucky were wearing matching t-shirts with stars on them.

"Indeed." Said a much colder voice. It belonged to a black haired boy. "I am Loki Odinson. And my brother is Thor Odinson."

"Yes!" Thor shouted excitedly. "I am the older brother!"

Loki simply rolled his eyes at his brother and growled quietly, but angrily. "We are the sons of Odin." He finished.

"Not really though? Right?" Sam asked nervously.

"Not really. Their parents were just eccentric when it came to names. But you can't blame their dad, he really _is_ called Odin." A boy sitting at the end of the table replied. Sam was brought up not to judge others, especially since he was black, but the way this boy was sitting, eating, acting and talking said to Sam that this boy was selfish and annoying.

"And what does 'axe-center-ict' mean?" Sam asked, slightly annoyed.

"Yeah, come on, not everyone's as smart as you are, you know?"

"It means weird. Strange. Odd. Out of the ordinary. Not normal." The boy arrogantly picked up a forkful of food and put it in his mouth. "Where _are_ my manners?" He asked once he'd swallowed his food. "I'm Tony, Tony Stark-yes _the_ Tony Stark, son of billionaire inventor Howard Stark." Tony looked slightly embarrassed when he realized that Sam was indifferent. "Yes... Well..." He mumbled. "Bruce!" He whispered aggressively, elbowing the wavy brown haired boy next to him who had his nose stuck deep into a book.

"Bruce Banner." He said, looking up from his book. "I love science. Physics, biology, chemistry, psychology, anatomy-anything really. Science is awesome. When I grow up, I wanna be a scientist." He smiled, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"And I wanna be a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist!" Tony laughs. "And I'm already halfway there!"

"Give it a break, Stark!" A voice barked from the other side of the table. Sam looked over and saw another black boy, just like him.

"Who are you?" Sam asked.

"Nick Fury. Call me by Nick or Fury, I don't care." Sam noticed that Nick was wearing an eye patch. Great.

"So one of you has one arm, another has one eye, does anyone have one leg?"

"No, but I got this!" Tony stood up and lifted his red hoodie and his yellow t-shirt to reveal his bare chest. Only there was something glowing light blue in the center of it.

"Do I wanna know?" Sam asked, disgusted as Tony lowered his clothes.

"It depends if you're into tales of swashbuckling pirates on the 7 seas and...!"

"He was kidnapped for a ransom off his father, only there was bad communication between the kidnappers and Tony ended up getting blown up and now he has like metal grating around his heart… Or something." Natasha said, finishing off the last of her fries, smugly.

"Aww. You're no fun, Natasha." Tony pouted as he sat down. "Yeah, it's a mini arc reactor and it basically keeps the bits of metal from killing me." Tony looked at the puzzled expressions on his friends' faces. "It's a life support machine and I invented it for myself." Tony explained, in simpler terms.

"Wait, _you_ built that, all on your own?"

"Yeah. Mostly. I had a bit of help from my computer-and I don't mean _Google_-but yeah. Pretty much. The technology existed, I just made it smaller." Tony said, picking up his juice drink. "And fitted it into my chest." He added under his breath.

The short haired girl sat next to Clint spoke up next. "And I'm Maria Hill and yeah, I've got all my limbs and I've not got a weird heart like Tony has either." Sam opened his mouth to say something. "Or any other part of my body."

"I just noticed something." Tony said, putting his hands into the front pouch of his hoodie. "Rhodey's not here."

"Where _has_ friend Rhodes been today?" Thor asked as he opened his lunchbox. He gave a disappointed sigh when he saw there were no Pop Tarts.

"I don't know, Brother. I haven't seen him all day." Loki said coldly, staring at his sandwich. He lifted the top slice of bread in disgust at the topping inside. Ham.

"Maybe he's sick." Steve offered.

"Sorry, but we're not _all_ as sickly as _you_ are, Steve." Tony said as a wicked smile flashed across his face. Bucky noticed and stood up. With his eyes narrowed, he calmly began to walk over to Tony. "Oh, come _on_, Bucky, lighten up. I didn't mean..." Tony was cut off by a punch to the groin.

"And don't you _dare_ insult Steve again." Bucky said icily. "We don't like bullies in this group, Tony." He made his way back to his seat and sat down next to a shocked looking Steve.

"I'm not a bully!" Tony gasped.

"Good." Bucky said. "Because you would just _hate_ to get a punch from my metal arm." Tony looked a mixture of shocked, afraid and like he was about to push his luck. Phil decided to change the subject.

"So Clint has something to show us all." Phil said with a smile. The table fell quiet as everyone but Sam signed frantically to Clint, who grinned back at them.

"It's in my backpack." He stifled his giggle as Mr. Selvig passed their table.

"What's in your backpack, Clint?" He asked, signing the words out.

"My uh... Homework, Sir." Clint said sheepishly as he bowed his head, his eyes still fixed on his teacher. Mr. Selvig gave a disbelieving grunt, but said nothing more.

"Very well, kids. Carry on." He walked away and everyone but Sam burst into laughter.

"I don't get it." Sam shrugged.

Clint noticed the shrug and stood up, before reaching down for his backpack.

"Clint, what are you doing?" Sam asked. Phil interpreted.

"You'll see." He replied with a smirk. Everyone else stood up and Sam couldn't help but notice that they were all grinning from ear to ear-even the cold and distant seeming Loki.

"Come on!" Phil grabbed Sam's hand as everyone exited the cafeteria.

* * *

><p>"Now hold still." Nick said as he placed an apple on Sam's head. They were all crowded around behind the dumpsters and had Sam backed against a wall. Nick backed away with a smirk. The kids parted to let Clint through. Thor jumped into a dumpster and emerged after a few seconds holding a weird looking bag. Clint gave him the thumbs up and Thor jumped out the dumpster to hand him the bag.<p>

"What's going on here, I...?"

"Come on!" Nick said authoritatively. "I said 'hold still', didn't I?"

Clint took something out of the bag. It looked like an arrow. But it couldn't be-he didn't have a bow. Clint put the arrow carefully in his mouth as he took something out of his backpack. What was it? It was a broken chunk of metal? He unfolded it and a look of horror flashed over Sam's eyes. It was a bow.

"I gotta get out of here, sorry..." Sam tried to escape, but Fury pushed him back to the wall and put the apple back on his head.

"What's the matter with you?" Nick said angrily. "I said don't move!" Nick moved out the way as Clint took up proper position. Clint took the arrow from between his teeth and pulled it back against the bow. Breathing out, he released the arrow. Sam saw the arrow hurting towards himself at top speed. He ducked and closed his eyes before hearing a *_thunk_*. He opened his eyes again and realized he wasn't hurt. He looked up and saw the arrow, in the wall of the school with the apple speared into it. Sam looked over to Clint, who handed his bow over to Phil and began to walk over to Sam. Sam moved out the way, figuring Clint would want to retrieve his arrow. What surprised Sam was how Clint pulled the arrow out of the school with such ease. He offered Sam the apple, but Sam declined. Clint shrugged and took a bite out of it, still speared on the arrow.

"How... How did he do that?" Sam panted.

"Archery is his sport." Phil shrugged. "He's the youngest of two and he's deaf. He had to get noticed by his parents somehow that wasn't for pity, so he became a good shot."

"No, I meant the arrow." Sam clarified. "How did he take it out the wall so easy?"

"It's just cork painted to look like the school wall." Bruce said. "Clint practices here all the time."

"At school?" Sam asked, still not recovered from his shock.

"Yeah." Phil shrugged nonchalantly. "He can't get in all the hours at home, so he practices here too." He walked over to Clint and put his arm around his close friend, before giving the skilled young archer his bow back. Phil signed a few words to Clint who nods enthusiastically. Clint pointed at his backpack and Loki, who was closest to it, picked it up and handed it to him. Clint folded up his special bow and put it carefully in his backpack before gratefully taking it off Loki. He waved before leaving with Phil running after him.

Sam was confused by the events that had transpired around him and turned to whoever was next to him and asked "What's the deal with those two?"

It was Maria that responded. "We all started kindergarten together. Clint was often by himself. We assumed he didn't want to play with anyone so we left him alone. In first grade, Phil got a new neighbor-their kid is deaf and Phil put the pieces together." She looked down. "He figured that Clint wanted to be friends and play, but didn't know how since he couldn't hear."

"Apparently, he got his neighbor to even teach him some basic sign language." Natasha interrupted. "Showed it to Clint. He was so excited that someone had taken the time to learn to communicate with him that they just instantly became friends."

"And since we were friends with Phil, we became friends with Clint, too." Nick added.

"Huh." Sam grunted thoughtfully.

"They don't really like to be separated." Bucky sighed. "At least not for very long. Although we all know some sign language, we don't really know it like Phil does."

"Bucky's right." Steve shrugged. "They're best friends, but Clint needs Phil more than he'll ever tell. But Phil needs Clint too."

"It's called 'symbiosis'." Bruce stated proudly, but everyone except Tony just stared at him blankly. "Uh… It's a relationship of mutual benefit and/or dependence." He explained. Everyone still stared blankly.

"Clint needs Phil and Phil needs Clint. They're both getting something from each other." Tony explains in simpler words. "Friendship, companionship, love…"

"Love! Eew!" The girls giggled.

"I meant like brotherly love, but yeah. Whatever." Tony sourly folded his arms across his chest.

* * *

><p>The kids took their seats after lunch break was over. Sam knew that he was sitting in between Clint and Phil. When he saw them enter the classroom, he immediately stood up.<p>

"Uh, Phil?" He asked nervously. "Do you wanna sit where I'm sitting?"

"Why?

"I heard off Natasha and Maria that you're best friends with Clint. I don't wanna separate best friends." He mumbled.

"I'm used to sitting away from Clint. Actually, Mr. Selvig encourages it." Phil shook his head and smiled.

"Apparently we sign with each other too often." Clint said, sitting down at his desk.

"I thought he couldn't hear?" Sam asked.

"He can't. Well, not extremely well." Phil turned to Clint. "What is it? 80% deafness?" He asked carefully.

"Yeah. Exactly." Clint nodded. "I can lip read, but not brilliantly."

"Wicked." Sam nodded back. "What's it like being friends with each other?" He asked.

"It's really normal." Phil replied. "When you move past the sign language, you see Clint for who he is, a normal kid who likes comic books, candy and archery." He shrugged.

"Huh." Sam grunted thoughtfully. He hadn't spent that much time with Phil, Clint and their friends, but already he felt that he belonged with them. Maybe it was because he wasn't bullied by them, like he had been at his other schools, or maybe it was that he felt like they trusted him with such personal information. Either way, it was a nice feeling.

"Class, take your seats!" A voice called out loudly from the front of the classroom. Sam looked away from Phil and saw that Mr. Selvig had entered the room and sat down at his desk. There was an awful sound that filled the classroom of chairs scraping against the floor. Sam cringed at hearing it, but noticed that his teacher didn't seem too bothered by it, figuring that Mr. Selvig had heard the noise often enough over many years-he looked pretty old after all-to be used to the terrible sound by now. He also realized that Clint for sure wouldn't be bothered by the noise and it was the first time Sam didn't actually feel sorry for him for being deaf. Sometimes it had its advantages, he figured. As Mr. Selvig called attendance, Sam looked around for his new acquaintances. He saw Tony sitting in the far corner on his right. In front of him were the Odinson twins, the easily excited Thor and the cold and sarcastic Loki. At the front of the classroom, he recognized Steve and Bucky. Steve, because he's the smallest and scrawniest kid in the whole room and Bucky because he'd taken off his hoodie and his prosthetic arm was in full view. Sam could see someone in the front row turning to look at him with a redhead girl. He recognized the boy as Bruce, but not the girl.

"Natasha?" Mr. Selvig called out. A hand to the right of Phil shot up. At least Sam knew where she was sitting. He looked behind and realized the boy behind Clint was Nick and sitting behind him-doodling on a notebook-was the short haired Maria. There were plenty in the class that Sam didn't recognize, or the names. He recognized Jane's name, of course, but who was Darcy? And Virginia? Carol? Jessica? Peter? Another Peter? That's going to be confusing. Hank? He didn't know there was anyone his age called Hank. Janet? Very similar to Jane and also confusing. James? James? James? Why were there so many boys called James? Stephen? Great, another double name. Sif? What kind of a name was_ Sif_? At least it's not James. Sam's name was the last to be called out.

"Alright, kids! Welcome to English class!" Mr. Selvig said enthusiastically. He almost sounded like Thor. "Today we're going to carry on reading…" He picked up a book from his desk and held it aloft. "_Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets_." He set the book down with a *_thud_*. "But first, I need someone to deliver this note to Ms. Carter. I _know _I could just email her, but as you all know by now, she's very traditional." Several hands shot into the air, with the exception of Sam's and Clint's. "Alright… Let me see." Mr. Selvig mused. "How about our very own… Star Prince." He said, going over to a table in the second row.

"It's Star _Lord_." The boy huffed.

"Yes, my apologies." Mr. Selvig said dryly and not apologetic in the slightest. A boy with messy brown hair stood up. He wore a red zip up hoodie that exposed a powder blue t-shirt and a set of headphones around his neck. He stuffed his right hand into his jeans pocket, snatching the note from Mr. Selvig as he exited the room, brown boots thudding against the floor tiles as he walked.

"Is he the type of person I think he is?" Sam asked as he leaned in to talk to Phil.

"Why? What kind of person _do _you think he is?" Phil asked.

"Jerk. Slacker. Just generally trouble."

"Nah, he's alright. Peter Quill. He's just acting out like that because his mom's sick with cancer." Phil whispered back. "He's got bags of personality, but he's a bit of a pushover." He shrugs. "There's a guy in 3rd grade that he just lets walk all over him. Yondu Udonta. Stay away from him he's trouble."

"Uh, I don't know who this Yondu guy is."

"Trust me." Phil whispered in a groan. "You soon will." Natasha leaned forward so Sam could see her and nodded vigorously, mouthing 'bad news'. Clint rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Uh… What are you talking about?" It was Jane from behind. Phil turned around.

"Yondu." He said, emotionless.

Jane winced at the sound of his name. "That guy's 100% insane." She said. "He's in the 3rd grade, but he's the same age as most of us. He just seems to think he can get away with picking on us because he's in a lower grade."

"Still." Another voice added. "He's not as bad as Ronan. Or Nebula." Sam looked towards the direction of the voice and saw a small black haired boy sitting next to Jane. He was _really_ small, like 'his feet didn't even touch the ground' small. Probably smaller than Steve. "Gamora's alright though-a bit weird, but alright."

"Yeah." Jane agreed. "The bullies seem to be in the lower grades. That way they can target the older grades and when we fight back, it looks bad on us."

"Scott would fight back for Alex against anyone." The black haired boy said. Jane shrugged.

"I'm sorry, who are Scott and Alex?" Sam asked.

"Scott Summers, 5th grade. His younger brother is Alex Summers and he's in 2nd grade." Phil said. "Scott isn't afraid of looking bad. Anyone who picks on Alex is getting a punch."

"Third and fourth row, I'm watching you." Mr. Selvig said. Star Lord dragged his feet through the door and half-heartedly dropped a note onto Mr. Selvig's desk. He sat down at his desk and slouched into the chair with a long groan. Mr. Selvig picked up the note and read it. He lowered the note and looked out at his class.

"I'm going to have to leave for a few minutes. Ms. Carter wants to see me personally." Mr. Selvig says after a few seconds silence. "Steve and Bucky are in charge." He says as he turns to leave the room. "Can't trust the rest of you." He mutters under his breath as he walks through the door.

Sam turned to face Jane. "I thought you didn't like Phil?"

Jane smiled. "Nah, he's alright. He can be a bit of an idiot, but he's fine."

"So who's Mrs. Carter then?" He asked.

"Not _Mrs._, it's Ms.!" Jane corrected, with a smile. "Ms. Carter teaches 5th grade." She said. "And Steve Rogers has a crush on her!" She said loud enough for Steve to hear. He blushed bright red.

"No I _don't_!" Steve looked down, awkwardly. Bucky was smiling, which was a good thing, especially given that his fist nearly went through Tony's groin earlier.

"Steve, you do. You can't really deny it." Bucky said, looking down on his diminutive friend. "I'm sure even Ms. Carter knows that herself…"

"Bucky, _please_." Steve said, looking up at Bucky with pleading eyes. Bucky turned to face towards Sam and Phil.

"He was having an asthma attack last year and Ms. Carter found him sitting on the floor in the hallway. She went to his teacher, Mrs. Rael and got his inhaler. Sat with him for a full _ten minutes _until he was okay again."

"Bucky!" Steve protested.

"What? She's not _that _bad looking." Bucky said, clapping Steve on the shoulder. Steve simply cringed and looked at his shoes. "I mean, for a _teacher_." Steve put his head in his hands. He was thoroughly embarrassed.

Sam turned back to Jane and the short, black haired boy, who was smirking. "So I didn't catch your name…" He muttered.

"James Howlett, but most people here-in fact _everyone_ here-calls me by my middle name, Logan."

"Logan?"

"Yeah." He sighed. Sam turned away, shaking his head. "Whatever, new kid." Logan snorted. "But when Yondu, Ronan or Nebula are bullying you, I'll be the first one to beat their sorry asses into the ground, eh!" Logan shouted as he slid out from his chair. "I'll punch them and knock them straight into the garbage cans! I'm like a wolverine!"

"What's a wolverine?" Sam asked, turning around to see what Logan was shouting at. All eyes were on the small boy. And boy was he small, looking at least a foot shorter than everyone else in the room. Even Steve and that's saying something.

"What's a wolverine?" Logan repeated. "A wolverine is an _awesome_ Canadian mammal that's really small but has a lot of strength." He nodded. Sam raised his eyebrow at the small boy in front of him. He was having a really difficult time believing this kid is strong. Cocky, maybe, but _strong_?

"Logan, back in your seat, please. Now." Mr. Selvig had re-entered the room. He had raised his voice and spoke firmly to Logan. The short boy climbed back up into his seat and huffed as he laid his stubby arms out in front of himself. Sam noticed that Logan's fingertips barely extended past the end of his desk.

"Where were we?" Mr. Selvig asked, picking up the copy of_ Chamber of Secrets_ that lay on his desk. "Yes, chapter 13." He said for the class to turn to the chapter. "Loki, would you like to start us off?" He asked. Loki simply nodded.

* * *

><p>Last period was almost through and Sam was looking forward to finally ending his first day at his new school. Since his father was in the military, this was his sixth first day and they never got any easier. But Sam knew that in a few months, he'd just have to wave the new friends he'd made goodbye as his father would be stationed somewhere else, meaning his family would be relocated to a new town. He felt someone tapping his shoulder. It was Phil.<p>

"Wanna come get slushies with us after school?" He asked, leaning in.

"I ca-who's going?" Sam asked.

"Uh… Me, Clint, Nat and Fury..." He said. "I _think_ Steve and Bucky are coming too. And I know Bruce _definitely _is."

"I uh… Maybe, Phil." Sam said after a pause. "My parents are kind of strict."

"What's your family like? I don't have a family-I mean, I _do_, but I don't. Clint has an older brother-he's in Middle School and his name's Barney…"

"Phil, you're speaking _way_ too fast for me to understand a word you're saying." Sam sighed.

"Sorry." Phil blushed. He had to keep his excitement reigned in. '_This is why you're a misfit_.' Phil scolded himself internally.

"You know everyone here, right?" Sam asked.

"I'd like to think so, yes?" Phil replied, not really sure where Sam was taking the conversation.

"Why are Bucky and Steve so…? _Enthusiastic_ about uh… You know…?" Sam tripped over his words. "Hitler?" Phil snorted and tried to cover it up as a sneeze. Mr. Selvig narrowed his eyes at Phil.

"Mr. Coulson, I've never had a problem with you before. You're a very well behaved young man." He said. "So I would appreciate it if you stopped disrupting my class, please." He said, kindly but authoritatively. "Don't make me separate you and Mr. Barton further."

"No, Sir. It won't happen again." Phil muttered meekly.

"Good. Because the next disruptive noise I hear from you, I _will_ be asking you and Mr. Pym to swap seats."

"Yes, Sir." Phil said, almost in a whisper, casting his gaze over to the blond boy on the right, sat at the table nearest the window. Mr. Selvig returned to talking about Hitler and WWII and writing notes on the blackboard. Phil leaned in to Sam again. "What was it you wanted to know?"

"Why Steve and Bucky are so fascinated with Hitler."

"They're not really fascinated with _Hitler_, they just really love History." Phil shrugged. "They were the same when learning about the Civil War-but that even got the attention of _Tony_." He said as if it was some impressive feat. "So are you coming for slushies?"

"No." Sam said curtly.

Phil tried to hide the hurt he felt as he moved his body closer to his desk. "Oh. Okay then." He said, desperately trying not to act like his feelings had just been hurt.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So welcome to my new story. I've been in love with the Avengers probably longer than most of you reading this have been alive. Well, slight exaggeration, but it _has_ been almost 11 years. I thought it would be fun to introduce it from Sam/Falcon's perspective, but it won't be solely focusing on him. The next chapter-which I've already written-is focused on Star Lord and Coulson. It's about the Avengers as elementary school students (and with the exception of Fury, older/experienced Marvel characters will be teachers), but it features cameos from other characters from Marvel properties as well, from GOTG, to X Men and Spider Man to Big Hero 6, with a little Agents of SHIELD on the side. **

**I tried to get the characters as close to how they would act in the movies/comics, but as all the Avengers are aged 9 or 10, it's pretty hard to do that. But each of them has their own stuff to deal with, as you'll find out. Whether it's Tony and his heart defect, Bucky and his arm, Clint and his deafness or Bruce and his... Well, you'll find out. I've given the Avengers their problems, but I'm also making them deal with them as children. If there's one thing I love about superheroes, it's the 'rise above it' attitudes. **

**There's no guarantee I'll stick with it either, since when I return to university, I'll lose a lot of time and have to work more on my essays and assignments. But I'll do my best to stick with it, since I see a _lot_ of things I can do with this. Who knows? Maybe if I find the space and the right story line without it sounding too contrived, we might see a little bit of Doreen Green.**

**Lastly, I don't own any of these characters, they all belong to Marvel. **


	2. School Counselor

Peter Quill-AKA Star Lord-was walking through the halls of his school. Well, not really walking, more like dancing. The headphones that usually hung around his neck were now on his head, the soft pads covering the speakers pressing against his ears and _I Want You Back_ by Jackson 5 bleeding through them from his _iPod_. He wasn't aware anyone else was in the halls, after all, he had come to school a lot earlier today to get away from his problems for a while.

"Peter Quill?" Someone asked. It was a young boy with long brown hair. Peter couldn't hear them-he was too busy being Star Lord.

"Yeah, that's weird that he's here." Someone else muttered. It was a girl with shoulder length blond hair.

"Well, Heimdall must have let him in here for a reason." The first person unfolded his arms and he and the second person walked up to the dancing little boy. "Hey, Quill?" He asked as he tapped the child gently on the shoulder. Startled, Peter pulled his headphones from his head quickly and flinched.

"We're not going to hurt you, Peter." The girl said.

"Oh." Peter said dejectedly. "It's _you _guys." He lowered his head. "Hey Sue. Hey Remy." Peter knew the two were here because Sue's mother was Principal Xavier's secretary and Remy's father was the IT technician and both had to be here early.

"Peter, what are you doing here all by yourself?" The boy asked.

"I'm happy." Peter said defensively. He looked up again.

"No one's saying you're not." The girl said. "Why did Heimdall let you in so early?" She asked. Peter averted his gaze away from her.

"He didn't, did he?" The boy asked as he brushed his hair from his face. Peter shook his head.

"Oh, Peter." The girl muttered.

"Heimdall knows everything because he seems to see everything." The boy put his arm around Peter. "That's why Principal Xavier says he's the best security guard this school's ever had."

"What Remy's trying to say is..." The girl took a deep breath. "Heimdall probably knows you broke into the school. You're not supposed to be here for another hour. Please tell us what's wrong."

"Thank you, Sue." The boy said. He turned to Peter. "We know your mom's sick. And we know your dad's not around."

"Who told you?" Peter asked defensively.

"Drax." Sue and Remy said in unison. Peter groaned and rolled his eyes. Of _course _Drax told them, Drax couldn't keep anything to himself.

"It's nothing." Peter attempted to lift his headphones back on his head. Remy held his arm.

"I know it's hard, Peter."

"You don't know me." He hissed, pulling himself away from Remy's grip. He put his headphones on and carried on down the hallway.

* * *

><p>Bruce walked into class that morning figuring he'd be the first one there, as usual. Bruce was always so eager to learn that he often arrived early. He enjoyed it, of course and the attention he got off Heimdall-who Bruce was absolutely <em>certain <em>was some kind of god, since he always knew everything about everyone. It was either that or he talked to people's parents. So he was surprised and not in a good way when he saw Peter already sitting at his desk and listening to his iPod.

"Peter?" Bruce asked, waving his hand in front of Peter's face.

"Go away, Bruce."

"I'm not mad."

Peter snorted. "Yeah, I can _see_ that."

"Peter, honestly, tell me if you're okay."

"I'm fine." He huffed. "Go have your little love fest with Barton, Romanoff, Fury and Coulson."

"If this is about the slushies..."

"It's about nothing, leave me alone, I'm fine." Peter growled.

"I know you're going through a tough time, we all are, but-"

"I'm gonna stop you there, I'm fine."

"Whatever you say." Bruce muttered. He walked away from Peter and over to his desk. A few minutes later, a tall girl with braided black hair walked into the classroom. She took one look at Peter and then her eyes moved onto Bruce.

"Star Lord's early." She said, walking over to Bruce's desk.

"You can say _that _again, Sif." Bruce looked up from his notes.

"What's he _doing_ here so damn early?" She asked.

"Hell if I know. He won't tell me anything." Bruce said quietly as he adjusted his glasses. "He just made fun of me for going out with my friends after school."

"Did you tell him about your dad?"

"No, he just growled at me and told me to shut up." Bruce sighed, putting his head in his hands. "Well not in so many words." He said, noticing the horrified expression that had crossed Sif's face.

"Little shit." Sif cursed at him under her breath.

"Sif, getting angry won't solve anything."Bruce murmured defeatedly. Sif sent a warning look to Peter who was paying little to no attention to what was going on around him and went to sit at her desk in the back, next to Maria. Phil was the next in the room and he was predictably accompanied by Clint. "Y'know, Phil, Star Lord was here first you know." Bruce said without looking up from his notes.

"No?" Phil said his voice full of surprise. "Really?"

"What's happened?" Clint asked, sensing a disturbance in the equilibrium. Phil signed to Clint and Clint's jaw dropped in shock. "Why?"

Bruce turned to face Clint. "I don't know, he wouldn't say." He said as he signed.

"You don't think something happened to his mom, do you?" Phil asked cautiously, glancing over to the sullen, self proclaimed 'Star Lord'. Bruce simply shrugged.

"I have no idea." Bruce shook his head. "By the way, how're your parents?" He asked. Phil looked down.

"My mother wants to take me away from them." He said quietly. "I don't wanna leave, y'know? I like the Coulsons-I _love_ the Coulsons."

"Hang in there, buddy." Bruce sighed. Clint, sensing the change in his friend's emotion, put an arm around him. Phil gave a small smile.

"Let's go sit down, Phil." Clint mumbled.

"It's not fair." Phil whined, knowing full well Clint couldn't hear him. Or maybe it was directed at Bruce?

* * *

><p>Pretty soon, the class was filled with kids and they were staring at Peter Quill. He squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. This is <em>not<em> what he wanted at all. Sam was one of the last to arrive, entering the classroom shortly before Logan. He sensed something was amiss. Phil Coulson was quietly sobbing in his seat with Clint hovering at his side, comforting him. Bruce didn't have his nose in a book. Loki was showing emotion. Thor was oddly quiet. And everyone seemed to be staring at... What was his name again? Ah, Star Lord. Looking around, Sam noticed something else was amiss. Steve wasn't there. He scraped his chair back and walked over to the front row where Steve's friend Bucky was sitting. Sam had to admit, Bucky looked a little lost without Steve. He kept rubbing his right right hand up and down his left arm, the tips of his fingers lightly grazing the metal. He was wearing a blank expression on his face.

"Bucky?" Sam asked. It seemed to snap Bucky from his trance.

"Uh... Yeah?" Now that he had the attention of the prosthetic arm using boy, a million questions started making their way into Sam's head. The one that came up most often was where the arm came from. Sam opened his mouth to ask about the arm, but quickly remembered about Steve.

"Where's Steve?" He asked.

"In hospital." Bucky whispered almost sadly.

"Why? Is he alright?" Sam asked, full of concern. Sure he'd known Steve for only a day, but that didn't mean he didn't care. He didn't like to see anyone in pain.

"Yeah, it was... An asthma attack." Bucky hesitated. It was because he didn't like saying 'just', like 'it's _just_' an asthma attack' because he knew it was those attacks that might one day take the life of his best friend. Bucky looked at Sam whose eyes were focused on his arm. "You wanna know how I got this, don't you?" Sam gave a small nod and immediately shook his head.

"No, I uh... I wasn't wondering at all." Was Sam's strangled response.

"Hmm." Bucky's eyes narrowed. He didn't believe Sam at all. "Go talk to Phil, if you really want to know." He said with a sigh. "It's rather a long story."

"Class, take your seats please!" Mr. Selvig entered the room and walked over to his desk Everyone standing made their way over to their desks, with the exception of Clint who was comforting Phil and couldn't hear the command of Mr. Selvig. Mr. Selvig looked up and saw Phil crying.

"Phil?" He asked gently. "Phil, what's wrong?" He began to walk over to Phil's desk. "Phil Coulson?"

"I'm _not_ Phil Coulson!" Phil shouted angrily.

"Phil, please. I'm trying to understand." Mr. Selvig said, this time more firmly.

"There's nothing _to _understand!" Phil shouted. He stood up and wiped his eyes before he spoke again. "I'll probably never see you again, so what's the point in telling you!" His chair scraped back and he ran out of the room. Clint looked sheepish as he shuffled behind Sam's desk to get to his own.

"Bucky, you're in charge." Mr. Selvig said as he rushed out the door in pursuit of Phil. As he rounded the corner, he encountered May Parker, the 2nd grade teacher.

"Erik." She said, with an acknowledging nod of her head. "I saw one of yours. He was upset and appeared to be crying."

"Where'd he go, May?" Erik asked.

"I saw him run into the boy's restrooms." She explained. "I was on my way to your class to tell you."

"Thanks a lot, May. Really."

"You're welcome." She smiled. "Would you like some help dealing with him?"

"That would be just super, May, thank you."

"Any time, Erik. I'll just go get Frank." Erik nodded and dashed off around the corner to the boy's restrooms.

"Phil?" Mr. Selvig called out gently. "Phil, are you okay?" He heard sniffling, so at least Phil hadn't left in the time he talked to May. "Phil, It's me, Mr. Selvig." He sighed as he stood outside the boy's restrooms. "Mrs. Parker's gone to get Frank. You like Frank, don't you?"

"Leave me alone." Phil snapped.

"Phil, buddy, I can't do that." Mr. Selvig said firmly. "You're 9 years old. I can't leave a 9 year old on his own."

"You're here after me and not with the rest of the class." Phil said sulkily.

"I'm more than sure that Clint's interpreter can watch the class for a few minutes."

"So what's the problem?" An angry looking middle aged man had approached Erik and startled him.

"It's one of my students-Philip Coulson. He's crying and refuses to come out of the restrooms." The man's expression softened.

"It's a problem with his parents." He said almost immediately.

"What do you mean, Frank?" Erik asked. "Are they sick, like Peter's mother-by the way, I need you to talk to him too. Heimdall told me he came in earlier than usual today and almost as soon as I walked in I had Sue Storm and Remy LeBeau tell me how he was acting aloof and distant when they tried to ask him what was wrong." Frank gave Erik a puzzled expression. "Sticking to Phil." Erik muttered.

"Erik, Phil's last name's not really Coulson, though I'm sure you gathered that." Erik nodded. "He's being adopted." Frank sighed loudly. "For him to be this upset means that the adoption might have fallen through or worse-his _real_ parents have tried to contact him in some way."

"I didn't know." Eric murmured under his breath.

"Irani came to me after the exact same thing happened last year in her class."

"What did you do?"

"Bribed him out with my vintage _Batman_ trading cards." Frank shrugged.

"Vintage-how vintage?" Erik asked.

"Pre-Adam West vintage." Frank's shoulders dropped, remembering his tragic loss. "Given to me by my father." He sighed.

"What are you going to do now?" Erik asked, putting his hands in his trouser pockets.

Frank took something out of his jacket pocket. "The same thing." He said, cocking his head. He stroked the card for good luck and walked into the boy's restroom. "Phil?" He called.

"Go away." Phil sniffled.

"It's me, Frank."

"I said 'go away'." Phil hiccuped through his sobs. "Mr. Selvig and Mrs. Parker called you here."

"No, I came here because I have a new _Batman_ card for you." Frank said, trying to sound as convincing and non-threatening as possible.

"What year?" Phil asked, suddenly sounding interested.

"Adam West, 1967." Frank repeated from memory. He leaned against the tiny-to him-sinks, hoping not to break them. He heard the lock moving on Phil's cubicle and he turned to look. There Frank saw a red eyed, red faced Phil almost-Coulson, wiping tears from his eyes with his sleeve.

"Can I see?" He sniffed.

"Of course." Frank knelt down to the distressed 4th grader and handed him the card. He watched as Phil-now hardly crying-examined the card, flicking it from front to back.

"I haven't got _this_ card." Phil said in an almost whisper.

"Have it, then." Frank smiled and Phil forced a smile back. "But there's one condition." Frank raised his eyebrows and watched Phil's face fall. "You come back to my office and I'll make you a nice hot chocolate." The little boy threw his arms around Frank, who didn't quite know how to respond, but decided a pat on the back sufficed. "Come on then." He said, standing up. The distraught little boy grabbed Frank's hand tightly. "I'm not your daddy, Phil."

"I know." Phil whispered. "I just don't want you to leave me." Frank's heart almost broke at the sound of those words. Phil, a usually happy and excitable 9 year old, sounded so... Broken. And he didn't know how to fix him.

The pair emerged from the restrooms, Phil still clinging on tightly to Frank's hand. Outside, Mr. Selvig adjusted himself.

"I know you want to hold Frank's hand, but you have to let go." Mr. Selvig said.

"But he promised me hot chocolate." Phil pouted.

"You can come to my office next period, Phil. Right now, I'm busy."

"I'll make sure to send you, Phil." Mr. Selvig put a comforting hand on Phil's shoulder. "Now go back to class." Phil nodded sadly and walked away. The two staff members waited for the young boy to be out of earshot before they began talking again.

"How is he, Frank?"

"Clingy." Was Frank's blunt response. "Something's happened to the adoption and I'm going to find out exactly what."

"How will you get it out of him?" Erik asked, causing Frank to raise an eyebrow. "More trading cards?"

"Yup. I got a whole drawer full of vintage _Justice League_ trading cards."

"You won't for long." Erik smiled.

"Damn right I won't."

"So I'll send him by in an hour?"

"Yeah and send the self proclaimed 'Star Lord' after him. You said something's bugging him too, right?" Erik nodded. "Good. See you around, Erik."

"You too, Frank."Erik calmly began to walk to his class and rounded the corner before he saw Phil standing outside the door, clutching the card Frank gave him tightly but delicately.

"Phil, are you okay?" Phil nodded and looked down. "Shall we go in?" Phil's eyes move up to see his teacher. He nodded again. Mr. Selvig opened the door to his classroom and let the young boy in before walking in himself. As soon as he entered the room however, he noticed everyone go silent and all eyes went on Phil.

"Phil, is it true?" Someone asked.

"Phil, tell us!" Someone else demanded. Soon almost everyone in the classroom was shouting at and demanding something off the emotionally fragile 9 year old.

"Enough!" The voice of their teacher booming around the classroom was enough to scare the kids back into silence. "I don't want you harassing Phil and I don't want to hear any _stories _of you harassing Phil." Mr. Selvig was signing as he spoke, to ensure Clint also got the message. "He's going through a rough time and I know all or most of you are as well. Show some empathy." Mr. Selvig turned to Phil. "Go sit down." He gestured to Phil's desk with a nod of his head. Phil sat down nervously. Clint signed over to Phil.

_Are you alright? _Clint looked at his friend with concern.

_Yeah, Clint. I'm fine. _Phil sighed.

_Something's happened with your family. _Phil looked shocked at how quickly Clint guessed. _I can read you like a book, Phil._

_Yes. _Phil looked down.

_Wanna tell me? I'm your best friend after all. _Clint offered Phil a comforting smile.

Phil sighed and his shoulders dropped. _My mother wants me back. _

_Phil, I'm sorry. _Clint's eyes widened in horror. He knew what this meant for Phil. His own father was abusive towards him before his mother moved him and his brother out of their home. He knew that being removed from the Coulsons would kill Phil inside, especially when Phil already knew himself as a member of the Coulson family. Clint could just feel his heart breaking for his best friend and he fought back tears.

_Nothing you can do about it, Clint. _Phil looked defeated.

_Yes there is. I can support you. _Clint smiled over to Phil. Phil gave a small smile in return.

"Right class. For the benefit of Sam, this is Mathematics class and for the benefit of _all_ of you, we're gonna tackle long division! Yay!" Mr. Selvig said. Groans came from all over the classroom. Even from Tony.

_I will always be here for you, Phil. Like Bucky and Steve say, 'till the end of the line'. _Phil smiled at the inside joke. The first real smile he'd given since he first found out the news from his social worker.

* * *

><p>After Mathematics, Erik made good on his promise to send Phil to Frank. However, since Phil and Clint both refused to be separated, he ended up sending them both. It was recess and the kids were playing outside, so Erik thought it would be best to get some things ready for the next period, which was science. He smiled when he realized just how involved Tony and Bruce would be. Erik was interrupted from his thoughts by the sound of metal being hit against wood. He looked in the doorway and saw Bucky.<p>

"You miss Steve, huh?" Mr. Selvig sighed.

"I'm not here for me, Sir." Mr. Selvig's expression turned from one of pity to one of confusion. "I'm here because of Star Lord."

"Why?"

"He's too proud to approach you on his own, Sir." Mr. Selvig gave a small smile. He knew how much trouble Star Lord could actually be.

"Where is he, Bucky?"

"In the hallway. He's just sitting down. And he's got a raccoon."

"A raccoon?" Mr Selvig's expression flashed quickly from confusion, to panic and then to realization. "The 1st grader?"

"I think he said his name was 'Rocky' or something?" Bucky shrugged.

"Yeah, that's Rocket Raccoon." Mr. Selvig stood up and walked from his desk and over to the one armed child. Bucky then led him to the sullen looking Star Lord, sitting on the floor in the halls against the wall. Indeed, the first grader raccoon, Rocket was sat next to him, talking to him.

"Come on, you're gonna miss recess... You're gonna, you're gonna..." The mammal looked up at Mr. Selvig who was standing over the pair.

"I'm Mr. Selvig. It's nice to finally meet you, Rocket, I've heard a lot about you. But why don't you go now back to Mr. Odinson's class while I keep Peter busy, yes?"

"Alright. I'm going, I'm going." Rocket said, picking himself off the floor. Mr. Selvig caught sight of Rocket's tail. "Yeah, I have a tail, so what?" Rocket said defensively.

"I never said having a tail was a bad thing, Rocket. Now go to Mr. Odinson's class."

The first grader mumbled as he walked away. Mr. Selvig crouched down next to Peter. "Star Lord." He said gently.

"Mr. Selvig." Peter looked up at his teacher.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"No."

"Is it your mother? Has her condition got worse?" Mr. Selvig put his hand on Peter's shoulder comfortingly.

"No, Sir."

"What is it then? You can tell me. I won't tell anyone except Frank."

"I-it's hard." Peter sighed.

"You're having trouble coping?" Peter nodded and Erik sighed. He hadn't had Star Lord's misfortune. He was raised with his siblings by two parents, one of which was still alive, and had a happy childhood. On the other hand, Peter was 10 and he already had his father walk out on him and now his mother had terminal stage 4 cancer. It was worse on Peter as well, since he was an only child he had no siblings he could talk to, nobody who was going through the same thing and who understood what he was feeling. Because Erik sure as hell didn't.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Since Phil is Clint's handler in SHIELD, I wanted them to have a close relationship like that. I work with little kids (between the ages of 5-8) and they all have mouths like sailors. So I figured why shouldn't one of them swear? **

**Heimdall seemed the obvious choice for security, since in all my schools, colleges and even now I'm in university, the security guard always knew what was going down at any place in the building. ****And the school counselor is Punisher. **


	3. Reputation

Loki woke up early that morning. So early that nobody else was awake. He crept downstairs and his dog came up to him and licked his hands. "Hey, Sleipnir." He whispered, happily crouching down to his dog. Sleipnir the dog climbed onto Loki's knee and started licking his face. The young boy laughed as the weight of the dog pushed him down onto the floor. He began laughing as the dog crawled on top of him, licking all over his face. "Sleipnir no!" He laughed. "That tickles"

"Good to see you having fun, Brother." Loki tilted his head to see his brother Thor standing in the doorway.

"Thor, what are you doing up so early?"

"I should ask the same thing of you, Brother."

Loki pushed his Labrador dog off himself and stood up. "Do Mother and Father know you have awakened? Are they awake also?" Loki asked.

"No, as far as I'm aware, they both are still asleep." Thor said quietly in exchange for his usual loud booming voice. "Have you seen Fenrir?"

"Loki, Brother..." Thor paused. "Did you _lose_ your pet dog?"

"Thor, I never _said_ I lost my dog, I just asked if you had possibly seen him."

"He's not upstairs, unless he's in Mother and Father's room." Thor mumbled.

"Hel is asleep on my bed, still?"

"Indeed she is, Brother." Thor smiled at the thought of the little black cat.

"Leave her be, then."

"So now that things have settled down at school, are you planning on carrying out your big prank any time soon?" Thor asked eagerly.

"You'll find out." Loki said, a devious grin plastered on his face. "You'll find out soon."

* * *

><p>Steve awoke that morning to sunlight pouring in on his face. His mother was opening the curtains. Steve moaned in protest.<p>

"Come on, Steven." His mother encouraged. "You have to get up some time."

"And I choose later." He grumbled.

"There's no choice here." She said firmer.

"Fine." Steve groaned. His bed sheets fell off his thin form as he sat up. A look of pity briefly passed over his mother's face.

"Come on. Breakfast." She smiled as she left the room.

Steve entered the main room of the apartment he called home and sat down at the small two person table at the edge of the kitchenette. He was wearing a blue t-shirt with a white star over the chest, tucked into blue jeans, themselves being held up by a grey belt. His mother took one look at him and sighed. She couldn't help but feel sorry for her son. He'd just got out of hospital yesterday and she was forcing him to go to school again the next day.

"So what _is _breakfast?" he asked.

"Today? Toast." His mother replied.

"Yay." Steve rolled his eyes sarcastically.

"Come on, Steve." His mother said. "I'm trying here."

"I hate Al Qaeda." Steve says under his breath as he folds his arms on the table. He huffs angrily as he rests his head on his arms.

"I know you do, Steve." His mother moved out of the relatively small kitchenette and carefully rubbed her hand on her son's shoulder. She knew she'd been lonely since Steve's father died in the Iraq war, but she couldn't imagine how it was for Steve. At least she knew her husband, Steve never knew his father. She also knew that the 7 year anniversary of his death was coming up. Someone knocked the door.

"Sarah?" A voice called. "Sarah, I know you're here, I can smell burning toast."

Sarah walked over to the front door of her apartment and answered it. "Lisa. What a surprise." Sarah said with a puzzled look on her face. She noticed how upset Lisa looked. "What's the matter?"

"They're trying to take my boy away!" Lisa whispers loudly.

"Phillip?" Lisa nodded.

"Mike and I are absolutely devastated."

"Come in, Lisa." Sarah offered, moving aside. "Sit on the couch, I'll be there in a minute." Sarah turned to her son. "Steve." She said softly. Her son turned to look at her with big, blue, sad eyes. "Something's happened to Lisa and Mike. I'll be here to listen to you after work."

"You never have time for me any more." Steve sniffled.

"That's not true, Steve."

"I wish Dad never joined the army." Steve sighed.

"I know, Steve. So do I." Sarah said, rubbing her arm soothingly on her 9 year old son's shoulder. Steve slid down from his chair, walked over to the couch and picked up a pair of white Converse.

"Mike is taking Phil to school now, if you want to tag along, Steve." Lisa said to the sullen 4th grader. Steve nodded as he tied his laces. "They're going to pick up Clint and then get breakfast."

"Okay." Steve said coldly as he grabbed his red hoodie that was draped over his chair.

"Have you got your inhaler?" Sarah asked, gently holding her son back. He gave a small nod. "Good. See you later, Steve." She smiled. Steve smiled half-heartedly in return.

* * *

><p>Bruce entered the classroom a little late than usual. Sif, Steve, Clint, Phil, Hank and Maria were already there.<p>

"Did you hear about Wade?" Hank asked as soon as Bruce stepped foot through the door.

"Wade?" Bruce asked as he lowered his backpack slightly. "That hyperactive, tiny little guy in third grade-the one who always talks to himself?"

"Yeah, that's the one." Hank nodded.

"What about him?" Bruce asked.

"Well..."

"He caught fire." Maria blurted out. Hank nodded.

"Essentially, this." Hank shrugged. "Apparently he's in the hospital with really bad burns. His aunt told my mother-they're friends."

"Is he going to die?" Bruce asked, dropping his backpack in shock.

"I don't think so." Sif added. "I think that he is just badly hurt."

"Probably be back here soon." Maria shrugged.

"Wanna take a guess how it happened?" Hank raised his eyebrow.

"I'm willing to bet it's something like he was jumping around and hit some flames and they spread." Bruce picked up his backpack.

"Yeah, kind of. He _was_ jumping around, and fell into his aunt's fireplace." Hank replied. Bruce rolled his eyes. "The burns are all on his back. But apparently they're pretty bad."

"God, poor Wade, even though it _was _pretty predictable." Bruce pulled out his chair. "Poor little guy. Really feel bad for him."

"Yeah, I know." Hank sighed. "He may be an annoying little turd sometimes, but he's benign."

"Benign?" Sif asked. "What the hell does _that_ mean?"

"Benign means harmless, Sif." Bruce explained. "Wade is annoying, he jumps around a lot, he's very talkative and even goes so far as to talk to himself, he's impulsive and his attention is always drawn to other things whenever anyone tries to explain something important to him... But all that said, he's generally just... Harmless."

"I know what Wade can be like." Sif said. "He never really hurt anybody. Although, if you put him in an interrogation room, there would be no need for 'good cop, bad cop'. Just Wade talking would be enough to drive the criminal over the edge and confess his or her crimes." Everyone laughed as Tony entered the room.

"Hey, I'm not going to give you free money. Tell me what you're laughing at."

"Wade's in hospital." Hank said.

"Wade who?"

"Wade Wilson, the hyper kid in third grade."

"The one who when he sees you talks your ear off and constantly changes the subject?"

"That's the one."

"What happened?"

"He was jumping about and got burned apparently." Bruce said as he opened his backpack. He turned to Tony and adjusted his glasses. "From what Hank told me, he's gonna be okay as the burns are on his back."

"Damn." Tony shook his head as he put one hand into his jeans pocket. "But something like this was bound to happen sooner or later." Tony walked over to his desk. "I mean, remember in October? When he climbed that wall?"

"Yeah, he fell off, didn't he?" Phil shrugged.

"Pretty sure he _jumped_ off." Maria said.

"Yeah, he did." Hank rolled his eyes. "And he broke his arm. It was just after he got out of the cast from breaking his ankle. Like a week or something."

"He doesn't like _not_ to be injured, then." Tony said.

"Nah, he's just impulsive. In other words, he does stupid things in the heat of the moment and doesn't realize that he'll get hurt." Bruce adjusted his glasses again and set his bag back down on the floor. "Or he _could _just simply have a death wish."

"Speaking of 'death wish', you got Wade Wilson in this year's dead pool?" Tony asked.

"No, I don't." Bruce said as he kicked his backpack under his desk. "Because although I'm not denying I that think he's got a death wish, alas, Wade isn't a celebrity." He sighed and added "If he _was_ a celebrity, no doubt he'd be on there."

As everyone kept discussing the injured third grader, Clint tapped Phil on the shoulder.

_What's going on?_ He signed.

_Wade's been hurt, apparently._ Phil signed back.

_That weird kid in third grade?_ Clint signed, with a look of confusion. _The one who's always bouncing about and talks non-stop?_

_Yeah that's him. _Phil clarified with a smirk. He knew that Clint could tell that Wade talked a lot because he can lip read. Actually, Clint even told him a few times that it was hard to understand Wade because he talked too fast and that even when Wade was completely alone, he still saw him talk to himself.

_How bad?_ Clint was concerned, understandably.

_Burns. On his back. _

_Third degree?_

_I don't know, Clint. Nobody seems to. _

_Who told you, Phil?_

_Hank. He told everyone. _Phil sighed. _Apparently his mother heard it from Wade's aunt. Or something. _

_Poor Wade. I feel bad for him now. _Clint briefly hung his head. _Although it was going to happen sooner or later. _

_Why say that?_

_He broke his arm jumping off a wall last year._ Phil smiled. That's _exactly _what Hank said not one minute ago.

_Yeah, that's what Hank said. _

_Can't hide from the truth, Coulson. _The two boys shared a laugh.

* * *

><p>In the staff room however, the atmosphere was a bit more somber. Some staff were crowded around the coffee machine, Frank Castle the counselor included. Erik walked in on their conversation.<p>

"According to Mrs. Wilson, her son has 10% third degree burns and 7% second degree burns on the back of his body."

"No way!" The second grade teacher May Parker said. "I taught Wade last year and I always_ knew_ he could be a handful. He was very hyperactive but I never thought _anything _like this could ever happen to him."

"I know what you mean." Peggy Carter, the fifth grade teacher said. "I found him last year, curled up in a ball on the playground just after recess when it was my turn to oversee playground duty. He had his hands over his head. I managed to pry them off and there was a huge gash on his scalp. His hair was wet with blood."

"I remember that." Erik Selvig, the 4th grade teacher said. "You came to me for help."

"Yes, I did. How did he say he did it?"

"Tripped backwards over a rock because he was running backwards." Erik rolled his eyes. That wasn't the first time he'd had to deal with any of Wade's injuries. Wade was always sporting bandages, Band Aids, stitches or a cast-sometimes even two. Nobody had ever seen him without either.

"Didn't Wade miss a few months of school back in 2013?" Secretary Mary Storm asked. "Playing in traffic or something?"

"Yeah, he was hit by a car and broke his arm, his ribs and his femur." May replied and took a sip of coffee. "He was absent because he had to have surgery." She set her coffee cup down. "And a body cast."

"And the same day he came back to school, he left halfway through the day?" Mary said uncertainly.

"No... That's-That's right." May nodded. "He tripped over playing and chipped his front tooth. I think he had to have stitches in his upper lip as well.

"And don't forget the broken arm." Erik said. "It wasn't even that long ago. He climbed a wall and jumped off it." He rolled his eyes and grunted. "I don't know what he _thought_ was going to happen, but he broke his arm and had to miss school in favor of surgery."

Everyone stayed silent until Peggy spoke up again. "Do you think it's strange that we remember _one student's_ unfortunate mishaps?"

May snorted. "It's _Wade Wilson_." She emphasized. "I defy _anyone _to forget_ anything _Wade Wilson has done."

Erik looked down at his wristwatch. "I'd better get to class." He said. "Most of my kids are pretty close to Wade, I think I'll just have them do craft projects for him today and carry on the lesson plan tomorrow."

"Yeah, that's what Irani's doing." Erik said under his breath as he set down his coffee mug before walking out the door. All the other staff followed shortly after.

* * *

><p>"Miss, where's Wade?" A brown haired Asian girl asked.<p>

"I haven't seen him in a few days, is he sick?" An Asian boy wearing a _San Francisco Giants_ baseball cap asked.

"More likely, he's hurt himself again." A blond girl said.

"I can believe that. He's _always_ hurting himself." An overweight boy with dark brown hair said as he frowned.

"Kids!" Came a voice at the front of the classroom. It was their teacher and Vice Principal Mrs. Rael. She was standing next to the teaching assistant Miss Preston. Everyone hushed. "I've had to give so many of these talks, they should seem routine by now, but yes, Wade has _indeed_ managed to find a new way to hurt himself."

"And it means that Wade won't be in school for a little while." Miss Preston said. "Again." She added under her breath. The Asian boy's hand went up again.

"Yes, Tadashi?" Miss Preston said.

"What happened _this_ time?" He asked.

"He burned himself." She explained. The blond girl put her hand in the air. "Emma?"

"That _still_ doesn't explain what _happened_ to him, y'know, the circumstances surrounding the burns." Emma raised her eyebrow.

"He fell backwards onto a fire." Mrs. Rael said, keen to get off the topic. "Now, today will be..." Mrs. Rael paused as she saw a hand shoot into the air. It belonged to the overweight boy.

"Yes, Harold."

"Happy. It's Happy." The boy reminded. "How bad is he hurt? I mean, is it worse than usual? Worse than... _The_ cast?" Mrs. Rael sighed. Happy looked really anxious asking the question. She knew exactly which injury of Wade's that Happy was referring to-the fractured ulna. It looked so painful, mostly because there was metal framework poking out of his cast. Wade seemed to soldier on, but admitted to Frank halfway through his treatment that his arm was really hurting him. Then he got all happy, talkative and excitable when Frank let him play Solitaire on his computer. Frank had admitted, albeit jokingly to Irani that afternoon that he was one bad joke away from blowing the kid's brains out because he was so overbearing.

"No. I'm not sure." Mrs. Rael admitted. She saw the Asian girl's hand go into the air. "No more questions, Melinda." She said sternly. A few more students' hands went up. "Wanda, Leiko, Johnny, Sean, I'm _not_ answering questions." Their hands went down immediately. "So today, we're gonna make get-well cards for your classmate..."

"But you said he wasn't badly hurt." Another Asian boy pointed out.

"Shiro's right." Tadashi said. "We only did this for Wade once and it was last year."

"That was when he got hit by a car." Happy said, the fear returning to his eyes. "That means he _is_ badly hurt!"

"No!" Mrs. Rael said, panicking. "No, it's just I don't have any lessons planned for you today." She said quickly. "I was going to have you draw pictures and now we can do that _and _give them to your classmate."

"So he's okay?"

"I never said that, Happy."

"So he's going to die?!" Happy began to cry.

Irani sighed and whispered to Emily "Go get Frank." Emily nodded and left the room.

"Where's Miss Preston gone?" A boy with an Irish accent asked.

"She's gone to get Frank, Sean."

"The Punisher?"

"He _does_ deal with some aspects of discipline, yes. But he's the school counselor. And I'd like you to treat him with respect." Mrs. Rael said firmly. "That goes for all of you."

* * *

><p>Everyone-sans Rhodey-had arrived in the 4th grade classroom and were all talking about the scandal that was "Wadegate". Sam Wilson couldn't really comment, since he didn't know Wade Wilson at all. Sure they shared the same last name, but that was about it. He didn't know Wade. Nor did he know a thing about him-well, judging by what was being said, he sounded like some kind of mentalcase who wasn't really worth knowing anyway. Judging Wade was not what Sam's parents would've wanted him to do, but hey, they're not around. God was and he'd pay for his sins later, but for now he would just judge away. Mr. Selvig walked in and put his satchel on his desk.<p>

"I'm sure by now you've all heard about Wade Wilson." He sighed. "Please don't try to let it distract you from your work." He looks at the class. "Today, we will be having a crafts morning. You will be making 'get well' presents for Wade." Sam's hand shot in the air.

"But I don't know Wade."

"Consider yourself lucky." Mr. Selvig muttered. "Wade is in 3rd grade. And unless you leave soon, you'll be meeting him." Mr. Selvig wandered over to the art supply closet at the rear of the room and opened it. "Does anyone have any questions?" Phil's hand went into the air. "Yes, Phil?"

"Are we going to visit Wade, or not?"

"As a class, no. But you can go individually with your parents-provided it's okay with Wade's." Mr. Selvig took a pile of paper out the art closet and began handing them out. "Now, everyone, get drawing and I want to see only nice things." The ginger haired girl sitting next to Bruce put her hand up. "Pepper?" Mr. Selvig asked. Pepper! _That_ was Pepper! Sam smiled.

"Can we use other supplies, like crayons and pipe cleaners and glue?"

"Just don't use too much." The teacher said and smiled to the little girl.

* * *

><p>That lunchtime, Sam found himself-once again-sitting with Phil, Clint and their buddies, Steve, Bucky, Tony, Maria, Nick, Bruce, Natasha, Thor and Loki.<p>

"So you're _really_ going to go through with it, Loki?" Tony asked as he took a bite out of his sandwich.

"He says he will. I have no reason to doubt him." Thor said unintelligibly as he devoured a _Pop Tart_.

"He's going to be suspended." Nick said, as he picked up his juice box.

"Or expelled." Maria added.

"That too." Nick took a sip of his grape juice.

Clint signed to Phil who smiled and shook his head. "He's an idiot, isn't he?" Clint asked out loud. Phil simply nodded. "And this day is about Wade, isn't it?" Phil nodded again. "Isn't this just taking attention from him?" Natasha, who was sitting opposite Clint, nodded and began to sign to him. "Loki, you're an idiot, you know?"Loki raised his eyebrow.

"You know he didn't mean it like that, Brother." Thor said.

"I know." Loki smirked. "That's why I'll show you all that this is gonna be the best prank I've ever pulled." Loki pushed his chair out and walked away, leaving his green hoodie still draped at the back of his chair. Thor grabbed it quickly and put it in his lap before moving back to his _Pop Tarts_.

"Did any of you guys catch the new Disney Movie?" Bruce asked after a brief period of silence.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Yes, this means kiddie Deadpool will be appearing later on in the story. I really hope I get him right as he's one of my favorite comic book characters. But then again, I've been told I'm like him so often because of my ADHD so I don't think it'll be much of a problem. Right now, I just wanted to introduce his reputation to Sam. Have him hear of the infamous Wade Wilson a while before they actually meet. And before you ask, yeah Wade Wilson will look completely normal, besides a few (more than most) childhood battle scars.**

**Most of kiddie Deadpool's injuries are from either myself or people I know/knew. The jumping off a wall thing happened to me when I was about 9. The wall was about 7 foot and I was just shy of 4 foot tall myself. I broke my wrist. The falling into fireplace thing happened to a friend. Though he had lesser burns than I gave kiddie Deadpool because he probably got medical attention sooner. **

**The next chapter will focus on Loki's prank. I'm making him closer to the Norse God of Mischief Loki in that he's neither good nor bad and enjoys pranks, though no worries as he'll still retain some movie Loki including that all crucial brotherly relationship with Thor that the actual Loki figure didn't have (he and Thor were BFFs, rather than brothers). I have some big plans for Loki in the future and they involve scenes with such characters as Bruce, Clint, Tony, Rhodey, Steve, Bucky and Phil as well as a dramatic chapter with Thor. So effectively, he's going to be a hybrid Loki. **

**The next chapter will also focus on Steve a bit more. Right now, he's angsty and I don't like that. I want to bring him out of that angst so he can get back to life. **


	4. Aftermath

Loki crept into the the 4th grade classroom and pulled out a permanent marker, a thumbtack and some stink bombs from his backpack. He giggled wickedly as he put his plan into action.

* * *

><p>After lunch break, Erik was surprised to see all his kids waiting outside the classroom.<p>

"What's going on? Why aren't you inside?" He asked. "Did I lock up?"

"No, Sir." A girl with a blonde pixie cut said. "It just _really_ stinks in there."

"Because it's school? School smells, I've heard that a lot over my career, Carol." Mr. Selvig put his hand on the door handle but Carol pulled him back.

"No, Sir, it _literally_ smells in there." She said. "Like someone took a dump in there or something."

"Carol, I'm sure it's not _that_ bad." He smiled as he opened the door. Then he caught the smell. "Holy freaking Jesus what the hell?!" He shouted as he pinched his nose shut. "That is _bad_!"

"Sir, what do we do?"

"Get the janitor." He said softly. "Now." Bucky gave his teacher a salute and ran off down the hall to find the janitor. "Nick, go to Ms. Carter's room and ask for her fan. Hank, go ask Mrs. Rael for _her_ fan and Stephen, go ask Mr. Odinson for his fan. Maria, go to Principal Xavier's office and explain what's going on." The kids all broke from the group and went the way they each needed to go. "The rest of you, go in the classroom, sit down and open all the windows."

May Parker opened the door to her room and stuck her head out the door. "Is everything okay?" She asked.

"Fine, Mrs. Parker." He said with a sigh. "A stink bomb or two has just been let off in my classroom."

"Any idea of the culprit?"

"I can guess." He said.

"Let me know if you need anything."

"Will do." Mrs. Parker was just about to close her door when Mr. Selvig stopped her.

"Mrs. Parker, wait!" Mrs. Parker walked into the hallway. "Can I borrow your fan?" Mr. Selvig asked. She sighed and rolled her eyes and walked back into her classroom.

"All of you." Mr. Selvig said. "Into the classroom."

Everyone else entered the classroom and opened the windows. Mrs. Parker brought her fan over. "It smells really bad in here." She coughed. "What happened?" She asked as she handed the fan to Mr. Selvig.

"Stink bomb."

"You said it was a stink bomb earlier, but are you _sure_ it's a stink bomb?"

"At this point? Not particularly."

Mrs. Parker grunted before leaving. "Nothing against you, Mr. Selvig, it just really... Smells. So putrid. Worse than Ben's socks." She muttered as she dashed out the room.

"Sir." Maria said, holding her nose as she walked in. "Principal Xavier's here."

"Professor Xavier." Mr. Selvig addressed the wheelchair using educator, currently in his doorframe.

"Dr. Selvig." The principal said back. "Let's skip the formalities here, Selvig. Tell me why it reeks in here of weeks old dead hamster."

"One of my students broke in and let off a stink bomb."

"Which one?"

"I-ah... I don't know." Mr. Selvig said. "Not for sure. But I have an idea."

"The Odinson boys?" Xavier said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, them. Also the Barton and Coulson boys." Mr. Selvig rubbed the back of his neck. "The Stark boy and his friends the Potts girl and the Hogan boy in third grade are also suspects, as are the LeBeau and Wagner boys in 5th grade. They always said they'd get back at me." He adds.

"This is the part where you'd say the Wilson boy."

"I know, Xavier." Mr. Selvig sighed. "It's weird not having him around."

"It is indeed."

"It still also might've been the Summers boy in 3rd grade. Who hangs around with Wilson." Mr. Selvig muttered. "So how do I find the culprit?"

"If none of them admit on their own, then punish the lot of them." Xavier said. "Talk to Carter and tell her to send Wagner and LeBeau to you, then talk to Rael and tell her to send Hogan and Summers to you. Punish them all until the culprit confesses. Then punish him or her accordingly." He said, devoid of emotion. He left right as the janitor arrived and Mr. Selvig began talking to him.

Bucky entered the room silently and pinching his nose and sat down in his seat next to Steve.

"What's Kraven the Garbage Hunter doing here?" Steve whispered.

"I couldn't find any of the the other janitors." Bucky admitted.

"But Kraven?"

"Yes, Steve. It's Kraven. Does it matter?" Steve shrugged.

"He just creeps me out. There's something off about him."

"There's something off about that chef Blonsky too, but I don't go about complaining about him."

"There's something off about _all_ the chefs, Bucky. And for that matter, the janitors." Steve shuddered. "Like... Like they're all in some top-secret evil villain group-like the _Legion of Doom_." Bucky snorted and tried to cover it up as a sneeze.

"Why would the _Legion of Doom_ be here?" Bucky asked, still smirking.

"I dunno." Steve shrugged. "Maybe they're after the technology in your arm? Or Nathan's arm. Or Misty's arm." Steve picked up the pencil on his desk and began doodling on a blank piece of paper lying on his desk. "Or maybe they're looking to kidnap Heimdall the security guard because he's all seeing and all knowing. Or Principal Xavier since I'm _sure_ he's telepathic."

"What makes you say that?" Bucky asked.

"He's always one step ahead of you." Steve replied, still scribbling furiously on the paper. "He knows if you're planning to cut class or if you're going to pull a prank."

"He's like a thousand years old." Bucky said. "I'm sure he's seen everything before."

"Nuh-uh!" Steve called out, picking up a green coloring pencil. "Telepathic." He smirked. "And there's special technology in Scott's glasses that make him see normal, maybe they're after _that_ too!"

"Who are?" Bucky folded his arms. "The _Legion of Doom_?" He chuckled.

"No." Steve said innocently, proudly holding up his drawing. It was a skull head with tentacles protruding from it, all colored in dark green. "Hydra."

* * *

><p>Lessons went on as normal that afternoon, even if the fourth graders <em>did<em> have to eventually move-to the cafeteria-while the janitors got to work eliminating the smell left behind by the stink bombs. Steve had successfully managed to convince his class that the lunchtime workers and the janitors were part of the top-secret evil super villain group-that he had just invented in his own mind-called Hydra. The class (his friends) then decided they needed to protect the school by having a super spy organization of their own. An organization they democratically decided to name Shield. Because apparently, shields protect things. Who knew?

Steve got to work designing the logo of Shield, but every time he thought he made one good enough, something was usually wrong with it, so he ended up tossing all the drawings out. In the middle of his twelfth drawing, Mr. Selvig stood over him with a stern look on his face. Steve looked up sheepishly.

"What is this supposed to be, Steven?" Mr. Selvig asked, picking up Steve's drawing. It was a grey eagle with its wings spread open, around it a thick, black circle.

"Shield, Sir." Steve said quietly.

"Shield? What's Shield?" Mr. Selvig demanded.

"Nothing, Sir."

"I've got my eye on you, Mr. Rogers." He said, slamming the drawing back on Steve's desk. "Now pay attention. You'll need to use long division out in the real world." He walked over to check on Bruce. "Probably." He muttered under his breath.

* * *

><p>In the third grade class, Mrs. Rael was letting her kids do art. They'd mostly all finished their "Get Well" art for their fellow classmate, Wade. Happy was nervously coloring in at the back of the class with Tadashi, Nathan and Melinda.<p>

"What're you drawing, Tadashi?" Melinda asked.

"I'm drawing a picture of a dog." He replied. "The dog I want but can't have because Aunt Cass owns a cat and she says they won't get along." What about you?"

"Phil." Melinda shrugged.

"Coulson? In 4th Grade?" Tadashi asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"No reason." Tadashi smirked. "What are you drawing, Nathan?"

"Me and Wade if we were superheroes." Nathan shrugged. "See." He said as he picked up his drawing and held it aloft. The drawing had two people, one of them clearly Nathan. He's drawn himself looking like a traditional superhero, eye mask, cape, boots, tights and underpants over them and all in yellow and blue. "That's Wade." He pointed to a figure covered in a red and black bodysuit and a red mask.

"Why is his face red?" Melinda asked.

"It's a mask." Nathan shrugged.

"It looks like he has red skin. Or is bleeding real bad." She smirked. Nathan put the drawing back on the table and picked the black crayon back up. He scribbled something on the paper before holding it back up.

"Better now?" He asked. The figure supposed to be Wade now had two large black circles covering the left and the right sides.

"What are those black splodges supposed to be?" Tadashi asked, pointing to one of the circles.

"Wade's eyes." Nathan smiled.

"Those patches are _way_ too big to be his eyes." Melinda argued. "Also, Wade's eyes are brown."

"Whatever." Nathan huffed. "I think it looks cool."

"I think he looks like some sort of droopy eyed, stroke monster." Tadashi said, trying hard to suppress his laughter.

"Or a zombie." Melinda added.

"Yeah, a zombie!" Tadashi smiled, pushed further to the point of uncontrollable laughter. "You could call him Dead Pool."

"Dead Pool!" Melinda squealed, also trying hard to stifle her laughter. "That's brilliant. Nice one, Tadashi." Tadashi flashed Melinda an expression between proud of himself and struggling not to laugh.

"Shut up, guys." Nathan folded his arms sulkily.

"Hey, Happy." Melinda said. "We haven't seen your drawing yet." Happy looked at Melinda and without breaking his stare, picked up his drawing and held it up. The top of the sheet was greyish black and the bottom was white with sprinkles of red. There were jagged structures-which looked like smoldering ruins-and grey clouds in the middle and what looked to be an undetonated nuclear bomb at the bottom.

"What... What is that?"

"Nuclear winter." Happy said, emotionlessly. "See the mushroom cloud?" He asked pointing to the cloud. Now that they thought about it, the grey cloud _did_ look an awful lot like a mushroom cloud.

"Wow." Tadashi shook his head in shock. "Considering your nickname's 'Happy', you're the complete opposite of it."

"Yeah, that's bleak, man." Melinda sighed.

"Class, listen up." Mrs. Rael said loudly. "I've just had an email from Mr. Selvig, the 4th grade teacher. Apparently, he wants to see Happy Hogan and Nathan Summers as soon as possible, so Happy and Nathan, go to Mr. Selvig's class immediately.

* * *

><p>In the fifth grade class, Ms. Carter was having a class reading session of Swallows and Amazons. A knock at the door disturbed this.<p>

"Come in." The door opened to reveal Darcy Lewis of fourth grade. "Darcy, what a surprise." Ms. Carter said. "What brings you here?"

"I have a note from Mr. Selvig for you." Darcy said as she nervously shuffled into the classroom and robotically handed the note to Ms. Carter. Ms. Carter took the note and read it over as Darcy shuffled out of the room. Ms. Carter's eyes widened as she read it. "Remy, Kurt, apparently Mr. Selvig wants to see you immediately in his classroom."

"I already paid my dues with him last year." Kurt whined in his thick German accent.

"Yeah, it's not fair that we have to go back to him." Remy huffed.

"It doesn't say anything about repeating 4th grade." Ms. Carter said. "Go to him. Find out why he wants you. I'm sure it's not as bad as you think it is."

"Easy for you to say." Remy rolled his eyes.

"Remy LeBeau. You are 11 years old and you have _no_ right to speak to me that way." Ms. Carter said sternly. "I will ensure you have lines upon your return to my classroom."

"Why is is _us_ who have to go to see Mr. Selvig?" Kurt asked, running his hand through his jet black hair.

"I don't know. You two had better go find out." Remy and Kurt both stood up and walked out of the classroom. Walking towards Mr. Selvig's room, Kurt raised his head and started muttering unintelligibly. Well, it was unintelligible to Remy anyway, since Remy didn't speak German. Remy spoke French.

"What are you doing?"

"Praying."

"Why do you need to pray?"

"Because some part of me is telling me we are in trouble with Mr. Selvig." Kurt said. "Remember last year, when we got in trouble with him?" Remy swallowed nervously. He _did _remember when they got in trouble. In fact, he couldn't forget it. The Mashed Potato incident was poised to go down in school lore and he and Kurt were at the center of it.

"I can't forget, Kurt."

"Then you understand why I'm praying to God for our souls to be saved." All Remy could do was nod. Kurt began praying again and ended it with the sign of the cross. They continued in silence for a brief moment before arriving at the classroom. They entered to find all the fourth grade-as they expected-but their classmate Scott's brother-Nathan-and Happy Hogan, both in third grade. And Mr. Selvig, looking at them sternly.

"Sir, what's going on?" Remy asked.

"You know what's going on." Mr. Selvig said coolly. "Go stand by the wall." The two boys did as they were told, feeling they were in trouble for something already.

"Sir, why are we here?" Nathan asked.

"Because one of you pulled a prank." Mr. Selvig said. "One of you let off a stink bomb in the classroom. And now Sergei has to clean up the mess that one-or more-of you has created." He picked up the whiteboard marker and began writing with it, on the whiteboard. "Either one of you could have done it."

"With all due respect, sir." Kurt spoke up. "I didn't do anything. And to my knowledge, neither did Remy."

"Well, in that case, you're free to go back to class." Mr Selvig said cheerfully.

"R-really?" Kurt said skeptically.

"No." Mr. Selvig said sternly. "You will stay here until I deem you to be innocent. And the same goes for everyone else." He said, looking challengingly at the children in his classroom.

* * *

><p>It was the end of the school day and nobody was any closer to figuring out who stink bombed the classroom. Mr. Selvig had got even more mad when he realized he'd been writing on the whiteboard in permanent marker. By law, he had to let everyone go home at the end of the school day and said they would 'reconvene' the next morning-whatever that meant.<p>

Steve was walking home with Bucky, Phil, Clint and Nick. Snow was falling gently from the sky, creating a cold white blanket on the ground. However, Clint and Nick were drinking slushies, while Phil sensibly had his hands shoved in his coat pocket. Bucky's arms were swaying by his sides and it was clear he was only wearing one navy blue mitten.

While everyone else was wrapped up warm, Steve was only wearing his thin red hoodie that he picked up earlier in the day.

"Steve, aren't you cold?" Bucky asked.

"No." Steve said, kicking a snow pile as they passed by it.

"Steve, don't be an idiot." Nick said. "You just got out of hospital yesterday."

"I'm fine." Steve grunted.

"No you're not." Phil said calmly. "We can tell."

"Even _I _can tell there's something wrong with your mood Steve." Clint shrugged. "No matter _how_ much you play it down."

"It's your father, isn't it?" Bucky asked quickly.

"... No." Steve said after a pause.

"Steven Grant Rogers, you had to think about that." Bucky grabbed Steve's arm with his won gloved hand. "Stevie..." He sighed. "We're here for you. All of us."

Steve inhaled deeply. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm fine."

"No you're not, Steve." Phil said. "Even Clint's picking up on it."

"It's not like my mother even cares." Steve tried to pull his arm away from Bucky's grip, only to be stopped by Phil.

"So the problem is with your mother?" Nick asked.

"I don't think she cares about Dad any more." Steve sighed quietly. "Or me."

"Of _course_ she cares about you, Steve." Phil said. It's _my_ mother who doesn't care about me. My _real_ mother, that is."

"Why say that?"

"She wants me back." Phil rubbed the back of his scarfed neck. "I was taken away from her because she never fed me or made sure I was warm. She never hit me though. Not like Bruce's dad does to him and his mom." Steve looked in shock at Phil. "Clint's dad hit him and his brother and mom so he lives away from his dad now. With his brother and mom. Tony's dad ignores him sometimes, but he's busy with work."

"Yeah." Nick nodded. "My father's the gym teacher-well, one of them. I have to do a _lot_ more exercise than _you'll_ ever have to."

"Steve. It'll be okay." Bucky said, putting his mittened hand on Steve's shoulder. "I promise."

* * *

><p>For the rest of the week-and most of the next-everyone in 4th grade was locked down until someone confessed to the pranks. The writing was still on the whiteboard, but the janitors had managed to scrub it mostly off, so it was faded. Kurt and Remy sat sullenly at the back, alongside Happy and Nathan during lunch times and recess.<p>

Around the middle of the week, however, Bucky noticed that Steve was absent and decided to go around to his apartment after school.

"Hey, Steve." Bucky said to his friend as he opened his door. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." Steve lied.

"No you're not." Bucky looked at his friend, full of concern. "Is it your asthma?"

"I just wasn't feeling well." Steve said.

"Hang on..." Bucky frowned. "It's the 14th. How could I have been so stupid!" He growled.

"I wanna be alone."

"Nobody wants to be alone on a day like this, Steve." Bucky said gently. "Come on. We're getting flowers." Bucky grabbed his friend's wrist and pulled him out the door gently.

"Let me get my coat." Steve went back into his apartment and re-emerged wearing a red coat and a red, white and blue winter hat.

"Y'ready?" Bucky asked.

"Yeah." Steve sighed. "Where are gonna get flowers from? Or money for flowers?"

"I got $5 in my pocket." Bucky shrugged.

"So whatever we can get for five bucks then?" Bucky nodded.

* * *

><p>Steve and Bucky walked up to a park bench. Steve was carrying a small bouquet of flowers. Bucky wiped some of the snow off the bench and Steve knelt down to set the flowers down gently on the bench. Steve wiped some of the snow off the call plaque on the bench which read<p>

**Sgt Joseph Rogers**

**1976-2007**

**Beloved Son, Husband and Father**

Steve put his arms on the bench and obscured his face. Bucky looked down at his friend whose shoulders were heaving uncontrollably. He put his hand on Steve's back and they both just stood there in silence as the sun went down.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Yes, Nightcrawler also looks normal. He isn't blue and he doesn't have a tail. T****he Nick Fury in the 4th Grade is Nick Fury Jr in the comic books. Some of them are from the comic books, others are from the MCU while others have traits of both, like 4th Grade Nick Fury. And I know that Cable is the future son of Cyclops, but for the purposes of this story, they're brothers. Same with Cassie Lang/Stature, she's the daughter of Scott Lang's Ant Man, but in this story, they're brother and sister.**

**Hydra and SHIELD only exist as a product of the childrens' imaginations. And why not? When I was a that age, we were convinced that our teachers-except two-were all evil aliens out to get us and that we were all either Mutants, Inhumans (keep an eye out for them too, by the way) or from Krypton and we had to protect the world from... We just watched too much X Men movies. It was about then that the first ones came out (showing my age!). So Kraven the Hunter, Red Skull, Abomination, Crossbones... Not really bad guys. Just bad guys in the kids' minds. There will be some super power things later on, but again, it's the childhood overactive imagination thing going on.**

**Oh, and with regard to the nuclear winter thing, I knew a guy we called 'Happy' because he was anything but. **


	5. Rhodey Returns

Almost month had passed and Loki still hadn't pulled any more pranks. Not that he was put off by the punishment he had caused everyone after, he was just waiting for the right moment. And that right moment came just before Valentines Day on what started out as a normal school day.

"Morning, Heimdall." Erik said as he walked through the school doors that morning.

"Morning Erik." The security officer said back. "I just feel like I should warn you, the Wilsons are in Xavier's office."

"The Wilsons?" Erik's voice filled with dread. "The military Wilsons right? Not-not the Canadian ones?"

"Sorry, but it's the Canadian ones."

"Did they have..."

"That little hell raiser with them, yes they did."

"God dammit!" Erik said under his breath. "So Wade's better then?"

"It would appear so."

"Right. Thanks for telling me."

* * *

><p>Everyone was in the 4th grade classroom, still except for Rhodey. Tony had started to worry after around 10 days, but never showed it to the rest of his friends. Mr. Selvig entered the classroom looking frustrated and a little bit fearful.<p>

"Class," He began. "I feel like I should be the one to warn you..." Darcy's hand shot in the air.

"Yes, Darcy?"

"Are we going to die? Like in a nuclear holocaust or something? Are you warning us about World War III?" She asked.

"No." He said. "That's silly. A nuclear holocaust will never happen."

"Then what, Sir?"

"Wade's back." The whole class went silent.

"Why would you need to warn us? He's harmless." Bruce said. "Talkative and irritating, but harmless."

"Are you trying to tell us he's better?" Hank asked.

"Yes, I am." Mr. Selvig said, dropping his satchel onto the table.

"Now... I'm gonna do registration and then we'll check how your plant projects are getting on."

* * *

><p>"Look who's back guys! It's me! Wade Wilson!" Wade shouted happily as he ran into the third grade classroom. "I'm not dead! I'm not dead! I'm not dead! I'm not dead!" He shouted gleefully as he ran around the tables in the classroom. Everyone simply stared at him in shock. Wade then held his arms out and made airplane noises as he weaved through the tables. "Oh look! It's Tadashi!" He said loudly and stopped by Tadashi's table. "Hiya, Tadashi!" Wade grinned, pushing his face towards Tadashi's. Tadashi looked uncomfortable by the whole affair. "How did your January go? I spent a week like fighting for my life or some shit and then I got out of hospital Mom said I drove her crazy and-BUTTERFLY!" He shouted, looking at the poster of a butterfly pinned on the wall of the classroom and began running towards it. However, he saw Happy walk into the room and decided to turn back to him. "Hello, Happy!" Wade shouted in Happy's face. "Where's Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful, Dopey, Sleepy and Doc?" He asked. Happy opened his mouth to respond. "And Snow White of course, where's she? Did you see <em>Cinderella<em> on TV last night, I think it was on like the _Disney Channel_ or something-or no was that _Tangled_? No it was _Boy Meets World_, which I _know_ is not a film, but still. I like _Boy Meets World_, it's a lot better than any of the crapfest that's on Disney Channel or _Nickelodeon_ these days. In fact, the only watchable things on either channel is _Gravity Falls_ and _SpongeBob SquarePants_. _Cartoon Network_ do an alright _Teen Titans_ show and a neat _Batman_ show, but it's not _nearly_ as good as the campy Adam West shows from the 1960s. Are you familiar with shows from the 60s? My grandmother used to watch _Bonanza_, _Bewitched_ and _Beverly Hillbillies_ like all the time. Oh and _I Dream of Jeannie_. What about that Robin Williams Genie in _Aladdin_, huh? Bit of a wild card..."

"Shut up, Wade!" Everyone in the class shouted.

"Class, settle down." Mrs. Rael said walking into the classroom. She was accompanied by Miss Preston, the teaching assistant who closely works with Wade. Everyone went to their seats, calmly-well, except for Wade. Wade insisted on bouncing there, no matter how much Miss Preston told him not to.

* * *

><p>Wade found it hard to sit still in the lessons and took the bandages off his arms a few times, which got him sent down to the nurse. Wade, being Wade, ran there and back, tripping up a few times. Soon, it was lunchtime. As Miss Preston sat down to eat with Wade, he ran off to see the 4th graders.<p>

"Hey there Captain America!" Wade shouted in Steve's ear. "Enjoy the Super Bowl? I did. It was awesome. I was only allowed to watch a little bit because for some reason... Hey, who's this?" He asked, pointing to Sam.

"That's Sam." Natasha said with a smile. She wanted to see how Wade would react on finding out he shared the same last name as Sam.

"What's your last name, Sam?" Wade asked. "My name is Wade Winston Wilson and I am in third grade. I'm 9 years old-I was 9 years old yesterday, actually. I didn't have a party because I was in hospital for a while and my mother was angry that I just kept talking and talking and talking so she sent me back to school and well... Here I am. Hey, did anyone ever..."

"It's Wilson." Sam said loudly.

"Huh?"

"Wilson. My last name is the same as yours. I'm Sam Wilson."

"Are we related?" Wade asked.

"I don't know." Sam asked. "Are we?"

"No." Wade shook his head.

"Then that's your answer." Sam picked up his peanut butter sandwich and took a bite out of it. Everyone stared at Sam. He had managed to do what nobody-not even the staff-had managed to do ever... Stun Wade Wilson into silence. Even Miss Preston-when she came to collect Wade-was amazed that Wade was quiet.

"So Wade." She said. "I'm getting married in the summer." Wade said nothing. "You can come, if you want." Wade poked his mashed potatoes with his fork. "I can't believe I'm suggesting this, but you can look after the rings during the ceremony." Wade looked up at Miss Preston with his big eyes and shook his head. "Wade, I never thought I'd say this, but please talk to me." Wade looked down at his food, leaving the teaching assistant to think over a problem she'd never had before-a silent Wade Wilson.

Meanwhile, over at the 4th graders' table, everyone was still eating. Sam looked up from his sandwich at Steve opposite him.

"Why Captain America?" He asked.

"I support the _New England Patriots_." He shrugged. "Apparently they're the most patriotically American of the football teams, because they're called the _Patriots_ and their team colors are red, white and blue. Supposedly because I support them, that makes me the most America loving, flag waving kid at this school."

"Why Captain though?"

Steve shrugged. "It's better than America Man."

"Some days, I just feel so jealous of Clint." Tony sighed, throwing his fork on the table. "He's deaf. He can't hear Wade's rambling." Phil interpreted Tony's words and Clint snorted before turning to Tony and signing to him.

_Jealous of my non-hearing are you, Stark_? Clint signed smugly. _Not my amazing William Tell abilities with a bow and arrow_?

_William Tell? _Tony signed back, with a puzzled look on his face.

_Where do you think I got the apple on the head trick from, Tony?_ Clint chuckled.

_Robin Hood. No-Katniss. _

_You like Hunger Games?_

_No. _Tony blushed. "I'm gonna go... Bathroom." Tony mumbled before getting up to leave.

"Where's Stark going?" Someone asked. It was Logan, passing the group with his tray of half eaten food.

"Hell if I know." Bruce said. He picked up one of the fries off Tony's plate and ate it.

"I think he's just embarrassed because he'd never heard of William Tell before." Phil shrugged.

"Wow." Logan rolled his eyes. "He's like a billionaire. He must have a massive library at his mansion. I know my parents keep a library. So if he has a library, surely it would have a book on like... Swiss folklore or something."

"Yeah, but maybe it's in Swiss." Natasha suggested.

"Then he can learn Swiss." Logan shrugged. "I can speak like... A million languages."

"Can you speak Swiss?" Sam asked.

Logan paused. "No."

"What about German?" Steve asked. "I can speak some German. And a little Russian."

"Little bit of German. Fluent Russian."

"We need to have a conversation in Russian some day, Logan." Natasha smiled.

"French?" Bruce asked.

"Just a little bit, eh. Hoping to boost that up." Logan pushed his tray up on the table and climbed up into Tony's vacated seat.

"I thought you were Canadian and that _all_ Canadians spoke French." Bruce said.

"Yeah, that's why I can speak a little bit. I only learned the basics before I moved here, to NYC." Bruce nodded. "And as a rule, most Canadians don't speak French. That's those in Quebec. But we do learn the basics. Like bonjour and crap. And you know I'm fluent in ASL." Logan said, signing out his words.

"Huh." Phil nodded thoughtfully. "Pretty cool."

* * *

><p>The next day, Sam entered the classroom to find an unfamiliar looking boy.<p>

"Hey, Wilson!" Tony called out. "Come meet my bestie, Rhodey!"

"Rhodey?" Sam asked walking over to Tony and his friend.

"Yeah, that would be me." Rhodey waved.

"Oh. I'm Sam." Sam nodded. "Sam Wilson."

"I understand your father's in the army?" Rhodey said.

"Yeah, he is."

"Cool. My father's in the air force. And so is Carol's mom." Rhodey smiled. "I wanna go into the air force some day. And so does Carol."

"Really?" Sam asked. "She's never said anything."

"You had a career day yet-you know when everyone talks about what they wanna do when they're older?"

"No..." Sam said thoughtfully.

"Then when you do, expect Carol to talk about fighter jets like her life depends on it!" Rhodey and Tony share a laugh.

"Right, I'm going to... Uh..." Sam pointed to Clint and Phil, who were sat down and waving at him.

"Mister Pym!" Sam heard their teacher shouting from behind he turned around to see Hank standing sheepishly with his head bowed down.

"Sorry, Sir." He mumbled.

"Henry, what have I _told_ you about hitting the other boys?" Mr. Selvig asked exasperatedly.

"You told me not to." Hank replied.

"Yes. I did." Mr. Selvig walked up to Hank and sighed. "So would you care to tell me why you just hit Peter?"

"Star Lord!" Star Lord shouted indignantly.

"Yes... Star Lord. Why'd you hit him?"

"He took away my ant farm from me." Hank folded his arms.

"Star Lord, we don't _steal_ things in this class."

"I just wanted to look at it." Star Lord groaned.

"Yes, but you should have asked Hank first." Mr. Selvig took the clear plastic box away from Star Lord and gave it back to Hank. "I know you're going through a tough time. How about I send you to Frank later?"

"I don't want to see Frank again."

"Tough. You're going." Mr. Selvig then turned to Hank. "And you've got yourself a lunchtime detention."

"No!" Hank cried out.

"You should have thought of that _before_ you punched Star Lord." Mr. Selvig walked over to his desk and brought out his lesson plan. "Alright, everybody sit down!" He called out. "We're gonna learn today about advanced calculus." Noticing the confused stares and blank looks through the classroom made Mr. Selvig laugh out loud. "No, kids, I'm joking. But we _are_ gonna cover long multiplication though and then after recess, we will have our show and tell, so get out your books."

* * *

><p>That lunch time, Wade ran over to the 4th grade friends of Steve, Tony, Nick, Clint, Sam and the others.<p>

"So Miss Preston asked me to be an usher at her wedding in the summer-I talked with my mom and she said yes and so I'm gonna be an usher, I mean, I've never been an usher before, so I don't know what to expect, but it must be awesome because I'm so totally awesome, just like _Batman_, hey did you read the latest Batman story? Did you know, Bruce, you share your name with _Batman_ since your names are both Bruce..."

"Shut up, Wade!" Everyone found themselves yelling. Wade grumbled to himself as he walked sulkily to another table.

"Hi, guys!" He said cheerily. "How are you? Danny, I haven't seen you in a month! Nor Luke, nor Misty, nor Jessica, nor Matt-but then again, Matt can't see me anyway, right? And Maya can't hear me?"

"Wade, please." A blond haired boy begged. "Don't make me punch you in the face. I'd hate to do that to someone with burns."

"Hey, Danny, why do you hang out with Luke, Matt, Maya and Jessica-they're older than you."

"I hang out with them because they're my friends, Wade."

"And Matt's blind and Maya's deaf, so how does _that_ work when you're all talking to each other? And is Luke and Jessica's crush on each other awkward at all? And with Misty's prosthetic arm, that makes you the only normal member of your gang, Danny, how does it feel?"

"That's enough please, Wade." Danny leaned out of his chair to growl at Wade.

"And I _totally_ consider myself to be completely normal, thank you, Wade." Matt said back, poking Wade with his fork.

"Ow." Wade rubbed his shoulder. "For a blind guy, you sure saw me just now."

"You mistake blindness for weakness, Wade."

"Yeah and speaking of my prosthetic arm, your best friend Nathan has a prosthetic arm _and_ eye." Misty laughed as she put a forkful of food into her mouth. "People in glass houses shouldn't throw bricks and all that."

"Yeah and sometimes Scott hangs out with you and Nathan because he's a protective older brother."

"How do you know that, Luke?"

"You forget I'm classmates with Scott Summers, don't you?" Luke asked, poking little Wade in the chest.

"You _do_ know what people have started calling you, don't you, Wade?" Jessica asked, pulling Luke's arm back. Wade shook his head. "They call you 'Dead Pool'. Because you have no survival instincts, kids around here are just wondering when you're eventually gonna kill yourself from your stupidity."

"Yeah, some of us are even taking bets." Danny chuckled. Wade frowned at him. "I mean... I don't have a bet put down for May 16th."

"Why don't you bet on when Loki Odinson will kill Phil Coulson?"

"What the hell are you on about, Wade?" Luke asked, pointing over at Loki, blowing up a potato chip packet and popping it right by Phil's ear. "He's a prank king, but he's _not_ a murderer."

"Yeah, put that down for May 16th."

"Wade, they're laughing with each other, you know, like friends do." Danny said as if it was obvious.

"I know that, Rand. Just... Just do it anyway."

"Alright." Jessica said opening her reporter's notepad. "16th May 2015, Loki Odinson murders Phil almost-Coulson." She finished taking her notes.

"Hah." Misty snorted. "Dinosaurs are more likely to come back than Loki ever murdering Phil-I mean, look at them, they're practically besties."

"Whatever." Wade rolled his eyes. "Did you see _Arrow_ last night? Man, was _that_ exciting! I mean it wasn't as exciting as_ The Flash_, but-hey do you think Pietro Maximoff could outrun_ The Flash_? He's pretty quick, isn't he? Quick-like Speedy Gonzales! Oh I _love _that cartoon, _Loony Tunes_..."

"Shut up, Wade!" Everyone yelled.

* * *

><p>In the 4th grade classroom later on, Tony and Rhodey were the last ones to enter, thus they were really late. Hank was giving his Show and Tell presentation on his ant farm.<p>

"How nice of you guys to finally join us." Mr. Selvig said. "Sit down boys. We will be having words later." The two friends went over to their desks sheepishly and sat down. "Continue, Hank."

"Well, there are over 12,000 species of ant in the whole world. It may actually be much more since some species haven't actually been discovered yet. And only queen ants have wings and can fly. The rest are worker ants and they can lift 20 times their own body weight. When the queen dies, an ant colony won't survive long since the queen is the only one who can reproduce."

"Are you done, Hank?" Mr. Selvig asked.

"Oh-when ants fight, they like to fight to the death. It's kind of like _The Hunger Games_, but with ants." Hank smirked. "Now I'm done."

"Alright!" Mr. Selvig sighed. "Give it up for Hank Pym and his ants!" Hank took a bow, holding his ant farm and the class began clapping half-heartedly. "Again." He muttered under his breath.

"Yeah! Nice one, Ant Man!" Darcy heckled as Hank went to sit down.

"Darcy! Please!" Mr. Selvig snapped. "Alright next up is..." He looked at a piece of paper. "Peter Quill."

"I don't want to present today, Sir." Peter said sadly.

"Alright, that's fine." Mr. Selvig picked up a pen and put a line through Peter Quill's name. "Then next up is Steven Rogers." Steve walked to the front of the class.

"My Show and Tell is on my favorite book, _The True Meaning of Smekday _and it's by Adam Rex. It's coming out as a movie called_ Home_ later this year." Steve held up the book. "It's about a girl named Tip and how she finds and befriends an alien named J Lo -like the pop star. When the aliens land, they rename earth Smekland because of their captain Smek and all the humans are forced down to Florida with rocket ships." The class stared at Steve blankly. "It's pretty funny too. J Lo likes eating dental floss, soap and urinal cakes. Tip, J Lo and Tip's cat Pig go off on adventure to find Tip's mother and save the world. I recommend it."

"Alright, Steve, are you done?" Steve nods. "Steve Rogers and another one of his bizarre books!" The bell rang and Mr. Selvig looked at his watch. "Alright. Class dismissed. We'll continue the Show and Tell after recess. Tony, James, a word please." Tony and Rhodey exchanged worried glances as the rest of the class all left the room.

"Sir, it was Rhodey's fault, I..."

"Tony. I know it couldn't all be James' fault. Now would you care to tell me the truth."

"We uh... We stayed outside during lunch time." Tony said.

"Mr. Heimdall probably saw us." Rhodey added.

"So now Principal Xavier knows about this. What a wonderful mess you two have gotten yourselves into." Mr. Selvig pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I'm sorry boys, but you're going to have to go to the principal's office."

"What?!" They cried out.

"I want you to go there now."

"Not fair."

"What's also not fair is you boys thinking that you can turn up to class any time you want."

"But-"

"No buts, James. You've been back here for less than a day and _already _you manage to get into trouble."

"Not-"

"Fair?" Mr. Selvig asked. "Yes it is. Now you two will go to Principal Xavier's office and he will punish you accordingly."

"But Hank only got detention!"

"Hank isn't a serial troublemaker like you two. Now go!"

The two boys left the classroom sheepishly. They went down the corridors to Principal Xavier's office without saying a word. They entered the reception before this office and saw Mary Storm sitting at her desk.

"Anthony Stark and James Rhodes. Why am I not surprised?" She said, looking up from her paperwork.

"Hey, Mrs. Storm." The boys muttered sheepishly.

"Shall I assume that Mr. Selvig sent you here because you need to be punished?" She looked at the boys' awkward movements. "Indeed I shall. Wait there." She stood up from her desk and knocked on the door to Principal Xavier's office before opening it.

"Mary?"

"Yeah, uh... James Rhodes and Anthony Stark..."

"What have they done _this_ time?"

"Shall I send them in, Charles?"

"Yes." Mary gestured to the boys with a nod of her head. They both walked into the office and Mary shut the door behind them.

"Anthony Edward Stark and James Rupert Rhodes. Unfortunately, this isn't our _first _meeting." Principal Xavier put his hands folded, on his desk as the boys sat down in the chairs on the other side of the desk.

"No, Sir." Tony said, avoiding eye contact.

"What did you do this time-actually, don't tell me, let's see if I can guess, shall we?" The boys squirmed uncomfortably in their chairs. "You stayed outside long after lunch break had ended, hiding out where your friend Clint Barton practices his archery. Oh and you were there for a full hour and 10 minutes. Am I anywhere close to the mark?" The boys said nothing. "Heimdall watches all, boys. You should know that. I'm holding you here for the rest of the day-which only has an hour and 30 minutes-and I will be calling your parents."

"Is that it?" Rhodey asked.

"Yes." Principal Xavier answered. "You will probably be punished enough at home, so there will be no detention." The boys sighed in relief. "However..." He began. "You will each have 200 lines. 'I will not skip class'. Begin." He pushed a piece of paper and a pen each towards the two boys. "Go on."

The two boys picked up the pens and began writing the sentence on the paper.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So The True Meaning of Smekday is a friend of mine's favorite book. I read it and enjoyed it, so I made it Steve's favorite book and had him summarize the plot. If you haven't read it, I _strongly_ suggest that you do. It is brilliant and there's just so much subtext in there for a children's book. **

**I introduced more characters in this chapter. A _lot_ more. If you're having trouble keeping track of the characters, let me know. I've had to create a database myself to keep track of them all.**

**Sorry it's late, but a family member died and it's been really quite stressful.**

**I don't own Marvel, the Walt Disney Company do. I also don't own The True Meaning of Smekday.**


	6. Valentine's Day Part I

The next day was Valentines Day.

Peter made his way down the stairs and into the kitchen, where he saw his aunt and uncle kissing.

"Gross!" He exclaimed.

"When you find yourself a girlfriend, Peter, this won't seem gross to you then."

"I doubt _that_, Aunt May." Peter put two slices of bread into the toaster.

"So are you doing anything special for Valentine's Day then?" May asked.

"No. I'm just going out to the movies with Harry." Peter shrugged.

"Just as long as you don't see the _50 Shades of Grey_ movie later." May pushed a bowl towards Peter. "Your uncle and I are saving _that_ one for later." She and Ben shared a knowing glance.

"Smart choice." Ben pulled May in for a kiss and Peter looked at his aunt and uncle with disgust as he poured cereal into the bowl.

* * *

><p>Clint entered the front room, where his mother was shouting down the telephone and waving around a bouquet of flowers. His brother, Barney, was sitting in the corner of the room, observing and eating a bowl of cereal. Though Clint couldn't hear what was being said, he knew it had something to do with his father.<p>

* * *

><p>"Morning, Steve." Sarah Rogers said. She was sitting at the table in the kitchenette, reading a newspaper and eating toast.<p>

"How did you know it was me?" Steve asked.

"You and I are the only ones who live here." Sarah put down the paper and smiled at her only son. "So." She began. "Any plans for Valentine's day? A special girl?"

"No." Steve sat down at the table, opposite his mother. "I'm just gonna go meet my friends."

"Which ones?"

"Uh... Thor and Loki, Clint, Phil, Natasha, Nick and maybe Maria. Tony's grounded."

"Is he now?" Sarah asked.

"Mhm." Steve nodded. "He and Rhodey skipped class and had to go to Principal Xavier."

"So where's Bucky gone then?"

"Oh he's visiting his grandmother." Steve simply shrugged.

* * *

><p>Loki and Thor were sitting in their front room with all the lights dimmed. Their parents were not yet awake.<p>

"Do you think Jane will be appreciative of this card, Brother?" Thor handed a card to Loki.

"It is a bit... Pink? And glittery?" Loki looked questioningly at it. It read 'Be My Valentine' in white writing over a pale pink background and there was a glittery pink heart in the center. Loki opened the card and read the message within. He looked up and shook his head at his brother. "Thor, you do not gain a lady's affection by messages reading '_you are in my heart this day and forever_', Thor..." He trailed off.

"Well how do you gain a lady's affection, then?" Thor asked.

"With a grand gesture and a box of chocolate." Loki gave the card back to Thor. "Ladies love chocolate."

"Loki is correct." Their sister added as she came from the kitchen. "I have received many boxes of chocolate from those in my class in an attempt to gain my affection."

"But where do I get a box of chocolate from this Valentine's Day, Angela?" Thor asked.

"I had one this morning. You can have it." Thor smiled. "For a price." Angela smirked at her little brother.

* * *

><p>"Philip!" A woman called out. Lisa Coulson. "Get up, please! It's 10am!"<p>

"I don't wanna!" Phil shouted back.

"You've got Valentine's cards!"

"Yeah, from you, Dad, Hannah and Rachel."

"Get up anyway, Phil!" Phil huffed and slid out of bed.

* * *

><p>Nick walked into the kitchen fully dressed, but without shoes.<p>

"Where are _you_ going?"

"Out." Was Nick's one word response to his brother.

"With who?"

"My friends."

"Which friends?"

"Clint, Phil, Natasha, Steve, Maria and the Odinsons." Nick picked up a _Pop Tart_ and put it in the toaster.

"I sent some chocolate to the Odinsons' sister today."

"Did you, Mikel?"

"I did."

"She's gonna reject you, you know." Nick scoffed. "Aldrif 'Angela' Odinsdottir isn't exactly good with emotions."

"Yeah, but she's cute."

"Maybe it's because I've only got one eye, but I'm not seeing it." Nick shook his head as he retrieved his Pop Tart.

"You will when you turn 12, brother."

"I'm happy being 10, thank you." Nick took a bite from his_ Pop Tart_ and left the kitchen. Mikel followed.

* * *

><p>"Has anyone seen my hairbrush?!" Natasha yelled out. "Evengy!" She screamed, knowing her long haired brother might have taken it.<p>

"Don't look at me!" Evengy threw his hands in the air. "I didn't take it."

"I don't believe you." Natasha narrowed her eyes.

"Anastasia?" Natasha's other brother Ilya suggested.

"Anastasia has her own pretty pink hairbrush-mine's the black one with the spider sticker on it." Natasha growled.

"We know what it looks like." Evengy rolled his eyes.

"Have you got a boyfriend?" Ilya asked.

"No!" Natasha said defensively. "I'm going to hang out with my friends."

"Keep telling yourself that, Natalia." Evengy smirked.

"It's true!" Natasha shouted.

* * *

><p>Maria walked into the front room to see her younger brother watching TV. There was a note on the table from her father.<p>

'Maria, I will be gone all day as I've been called into work. Look after your little brother. Dad'

Maria sighed. Despite being only 3 years older than her brother, she was already his mother figure at 9 years old. The one time in ages she decides to go out with her friends and she's stuck babysitting. Was this situation even legal? Mrs. Smith just got divorced and it's Valentine's Day so she might be free...

"Hey, Ethan?" Maria asked.

"Yeah?"

"You like Carla Smith next door right?" Ethan nodded. "Well how about you going to stay with her for today if she's not busy?"

"Alright." Ethan smiled as he turned off the TV.

* * *

><p>"Come on, James." Bucky's mother Winifred said, grabbing his flesh arm. "There's nothing imposing about your grandmother."<p>

"I never said there was." Bucky blew his bangs from his face.

"Rebecca has no problem with this."

"Becky's 6. I'm 10."

"James. Please."

"No."

"Stay out here then, James. If you get kidnapped, don't come crying to me or your father." Winifred let go of Bucky's arm.

"I don't think I'd be able to if I was kidnapped anyway, Mom."

"Leave him out here, Winifred." Bucky's grandmother said. "Give him a soccer ball or something."

"No, Mom!" Winifred shook her head in disgust. "He needs to be punished."

"He's just a child. And one who's gone through hard times recently." Bucky's grandmother looked at him sadly. "Don't you remember what it was like seeing him in the hospital? In the intensive care unit, unconscious and unresponsive and on life support?" Winifred looked down sadly. "He's got brain damage, Winifred. He lost his arm. You said yourself he has good days and bad days. He's probably having a bad day and you can't punish him for that."

"I could never forget that." Winifred whispered. "Nobody should have to see their child like that." She looked sadly at Bucky who had his hands in his coat pockets, kicking snow piles.

"You need to be more gentle with him." Bucky's grandmother said, putting an arm around her daughter. "James!" Bucky turned to look. "We're inside when you decide you want to be with us." Bucky nodded and went back to kicking the snow. "That's all you have to do." She said and the two of them went inside, leaving Bucky out in the snow.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I don't own the Avengers, SHIELD, X Men or any other character, except Natasha's siblings, Maria's brother, Bucky's grandmother and Coulson's adoptive family, who are my OCs. Everyone else is owned by Marvel. And no, Uncle Ben's not dead. _Yet_...**


	7. Valentine's Day Part II

Angela pushed Thor out of the front door with his card and a box of chocolates.

"Go win her heart, little brother."

Thor walked uncertainly to the house across the street.

"Do you _really_ think Thor will win her heart?" Loki, who was by her side, asked.

"I am not sure, Loki." Angela frowned.

"Look, she's answering the door." Loki pointed to the house. "They are talking."

"Indeed." Angela says in thought.

"I am not aware of what Thor sees in Jane Foster." Loki shrugged. "I prefer..."

"Loki, be quiet." Angela hissed quietly. "She has accepted the chocolate."

"So she has." Loki noted. Jane kissed Thor on his cheek and went back inside. Thor walked back to his house with a goofy smile on his face.

"I see that went well, Thor." Angela smiled.

"Indeed, Sister." Thor exhaled. "It went very well."

"She kissed you, Brother."

"Yes..." Thor held his hand over where Jane had kissed his cheek. "I was not expecting that myself."

"So what's happening then?" Loki asked.

"We are meeting later on today to see a film."

"Not _50 Shades of Grey_?" Loki raised an eyebrow.

"Loki, I would not watch _50 Shades of Grey_ if I _was_ grey." Thor shook his head and everyone chuckled.

* * *

><p>Over at his grandmother's house, Bucky was absent mindedly building a snowman. A girl came up to his snowman and observed him for a few moments.<p>

"What are you building?" She asked. Bucky looked at her, startled.

"A snowman?" He said questioningly.

"_Do you wanna build a snowman_?" She asked in sing song.

"I'm building one." Bucky said.

"With me, I mean." The girl chuckled.

"Uh... Sure?" Bucky shrugged. "But I don't know your name."

"I know yours." The girl said. "It's James Barnes, but everyone calls you Bucky."

"How-"

"I go to Marvel Elementary as well." The girl smiled. "I'm in 2nd Grade, but I'm 9."

"Why-?"

"I... I don't wanna talk about it." The girl said quickly. Bucky took his metal arm from the snowman. The girl stared at it.

"What...?"

"I don't wanna talk about it either." Bucky kicked the snowman. A loud noise caused Bucky to scream and cover his ears. "Nein!" He shouted. "Ich bin nicht glücklich! Ich bin nicht glücklich!"

"Bucky?" The girl asked.

"Nein!"

"Bucky, it's okay." The girl rubbed Bucky's back soothingly. "It was just a car backfiring." Bucky slowly lowered his arms. "Is that how you lost your arm..."

"Ich nicht..." Bucky paused. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Well uh... I should probably say my name's Daisy, but everyone just calls me Skye."

"Why-"

"It goes under 'I don't wanna talk about it', so..."

"Skye?"

"Yeah. Just call me Skye."

* * *

><p>"Mom?" Steve asked.<p>

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Are you going to see that Mommy and Daddy movie later?"

"_50 Shades_..." Sarah began.

"_Of Grey_, yeah." Steve finished and nodded.

"No, Steve. I'm not. I'm babysitting the Coulson kids... While _their_ parents go to see it." Sarah explained.

"Are you going to see it at all?"

"I might." Steve simply nodded.

"Okay." Steve finished his toast and stood up. "I'm gonna go pick up Phil."

"Alright." Sarah stood up from the table and walked to the door with Steve, who was too small to reach the latch by himself. "Have you got your inhaler?"

"Yes, Mom." Steve nodded.

"And a spare?" Steve nodded again. "Have you taken your heart medication? Your anti-seizure meds? Your asthma meds?"

"Yes, Mom." Steve sighed.

"What about your kidney meds? Your iron tablets? Your insulin? A small candy..."

"YES, Mom!" Steve said exasperatedly.

"Did you put them in your backpack?" Sarah gasped. "Did you take your muscle relaxants? In case your muscles spasm up again..."

"I'm fine, Mom." Steve rolled his eyes. Just because he was born almost 4 months premature and was a sickly child compared to everyone else, didn't mean he had to be babied.

"Alright, Steve." Sarah sighed. "I just care, Sweetie." She wrapped her arms around her son and Steve held her back.

"I know, Mom." Sarah let go of Steve and opened the door for him.

"Go get Phil." Sarah smiled bittersweetly after her only child as he walked the hallway to Phil's apartment.

* * *

><p>"Nice of you to join the living." Lisa Coulson said to a fully dressed, but still half asleep looking Phil. Everyone was sitting around the kitchen table, eating breakfast.<p>

"I'm going with my friends today. It's Saturday."

"It's also Valentine's day!" Mike Coulson kissed Lisa and Phil, Hannah and Rachel all cringed.

"Looking forward to that sexy movie later." Lisa said.

"I don't wanna know." Hannah picked up her cereal bowl and left the kitchen table. "Disgusting."

"You won't think so in a few years, missy!" Mike shouted after her.

"Pretty sure I will." She muttered.

"You're going to see that _50 Shades_ that everyone's parents are going to?" Phil asked.

"You're not supposed to know about it." Mike said.

"But there's billboards for it everywhere, Dad." Phil shrugged.

"You don't see it until you're married."

"I'm not going to get married." Phil said. "International super spies don't get married."

"You still think that, huh?" Mike smiled and tousled Phil's hair.

"I am one already!" Phil protested.

"Are you?" Lisa asked.

"Yeah! Hydra's taken over my school! _Someone_ has to protect America!"

"And Hydra is...?"

"An evil supervillain organization. Like the _Legion of Doom_."

"It's true, Mom and Dad!" Rachel shouted. "They even got a logo!"

"Why haven't I heard about this?" Lisa asked.

"What does the logo look like?"

"A squid!" The two kids shouted. Hannah walked into the kitchenette.

"Phil, Captain America's here."

"Captain...?" He trailed off. " Steve! Dad, ask Steve about it!"

"Ask Steve about what?" Hannah asked.

"Hydra!"

"Yeah, I'm pretty certain Mr Klaw is working for them." Hannah shrugged.

"The only thing I'm interested in now is why you call your friend 'Captain America'."

"Because it's better than America Man."

"Really?"

"Nah. It's all to do with his 4th of July birthday and the fact that he supports the _New England Patriots_, loves Apple Pie and goes to the Boy Scouts."

"You go to the Boy Scouts too, Phil." Lisa said.

"I do. But Steve's just like a walking stereotype."

"Look at you using big words." Mike chuckled.

"Well, I _am_ 9..."

"You better go meet your friend." Lisa said. "And don't forget Ms. Rogers is babysitting you later."

"Alright, bye Mom. Bye, Dad." Phil walked into the front room to see Steve.

"Let's go pick up Clint."

"Good idea." Phil nodded. "Nick's meeting us outside our apartment building soon."

* * *

><p>"Junior, are you <em>sure<em> you're okay?" Nick Fury Sr asked.

"Dad, I already _told_ you, I'm not meeting a girl-well Maria's a girl, but I'm not meeting her alone." Nick Jr groaned.

"Just doing my fatherly duty."

"Why don't you do that with Mikel?"

"I do."

"Then why don't you know he's trying to woo Aldrif Odinsdottir?!" Nick Jr spat out the name. Nick Sr recoiled in horror.

"He's doing WHAT?!" Nick Sr shouted angrily.

"He sent Aldrif Odinsdottir a box of chocolate this morning."

* * *

><p>"So who was it who actually sent you the chocolate, Sister?" Loki asked.<p>

"I had two people send me chocolate."

"Who sent you the box you gave Thor to give to Jane?"

"Black Bolt." Angela sighed. "I received another box from Mikel Fury. I like him, he's cute."

"Black Bolt?" Loki looked at Angela questioningly.

"Blackagar Boltagon. However, everyone calls him Black Bolt."

"Interesting." Loki nodded. "Where does this 'Black Bolt' hail from?"

"A place he calls Attilan?" Angela shrugged. "I don't know. Black Bolt is a man of few words."

"A man? I thought he was 12."

"You thought wrong, Loki. He is 11."

* * *

><p>"Hey Mrs. Barton." Phil smiled at the woman in the doorway. "Is Clint home?"<p>

"Yeah, one second." Clint's mother stepped away from the door.

"Who do we need after Clint?" Steve asked.

"Uh... Maria." Phil nodded.

"Yeah. Oh and the Odinson twins."

"That's right. The Odinsons."

Clint's mother reemerged at the doorway with Clint and signed to him. Clint nodded and he and his mother hugged.

"Let's go." Clint said to Phil and Steve and they all walked down the hall together.

* * *

><p>"Are you <em>sure<em> you don't have a date, Natalia?" Evengy asked. "You look WAY too nice to just be going out with your friends."

"Well I am." Natasha said as she fixed a flower barrette into her hair. She and her older brother were standing in front of a mirror. "So shut up."

"How do I know that you're not gonna kiss that deaf kid you like so much?"

"Clint? Ha! You wish."

"Or that one eyed pirate you hang out with so often."

"Don't call Nick a pirate, he's already sensitive to the fact that..."

"Then there's that weedy little boy, who has just about every illness except Ebola."

"Steve was born preterm actually..."

"And... That boy who lost his arm in an explosion and went into a coma."

"I'll have you know, Bucky is a _very_ nice guy..."

"The magician?"

"Nothing's going on between me and Stephen."

"Ant Man?"

"So you've heard about Hank Pym's ant obsession then?"

"Yep."

"Well I'm pretty sure he's got a thing for Jan anyway." Natasha turned away from the mirror. "How do I look?"

"Like I'm pretty sure you're going on a date."

* * *

><p>"I appreciate you looking after my younger brother, Ms. Smith." Maria smiled at her neighbor.<p>

"It's my pleasure, Maria." Carla Smith said. "I don't think it's fair how your father can just leave you alone without calling a sitter."

"I know, Ms. Smith." Maria sighed. "But he works a lot."

"I'll be seeing you later?"

"Probably." Maria looked at the ground.

Carla put her hand on Maria's shoulder. "Then I'll see you later."

"Bye, Ms. Smith." Maria walked away from Carla Smith's house and walked further up the street to Nick's house. Nick was waiting for her outside the building already.

"You ready to go?"

"Only if you are." The two kids shared a laugh and began the walk to Clint, Phil and Steve's apartment building.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Valentine's Day part 2. There are only 2 more parts left. **

**Natasha's siblings and parents call her Natalia, everyone else calls her Natasha. **

**So a mention of Black Bolt and the (former) home of the Inhumans. What does this mean (probably nothing)? Stay tuned...**


	8. Trapped in the Closet

"Loki!" Janet Van Dyne shouted out. "Let us out!"

"No!" Loki shouted on the other side of the door. "Enjoy each other's company!" Janet could hear Loki's laugh getting further away. She growled.

Loki had tricked her, Sam and Bucky into the janitor's supply closet during afternoon recess for one of his pranks. It wasn't malicious, but it _was _annoying. Especially for her being the only girl trapped with two boys.

"Jan, he'll come back." Bucky said, folding his arms. "I mean, he has to, right? He can't keep us here overnight."

"The janitors will find us, anyway." Sam shrugged.

"No. The janitors are at home." Janet shook her head. "They go home in the afternoon. Come in early in the morning."

"Mr. Heimdall then."

"Probably. If he saw Loki trick us in here, that is."

"So what?" Sam asked.

"So we wait." Bucky sighed and sat on a box full of soap bars.

The kids waited and waited but it was only until last bell that they realized the stark truth.

"Guys, I can't see us getting out of this closet today." Janet sighed.

"So we're locked in here all night?" Sam asked.

"Looks that way, Sam." Janet paced the mid-sized supply closet. "Bucky, are you okay?"

"Mom's gonna be so worried." Bucky whispered.

"She's been so protective of him since his accident." Janet explained.

"Is that when he lost his arm?"

"He had severe brain damage too."

"What happened?" Sam asked, noticing Bucky sitting on a box, rocking back and forth, muttering to himself in German.

"An explosion." Janet breathed. Sam looked down, sadly.

"Bucky, I didn't know." Sam put his hand on Bucky's flesh shoulder.

"I didn't want you to." Bucky said. "I just wanted you to see me as Bucky your classmate and Bucky your friend. I didn't want you to see me as Bucky the brain damaged kid who needs to be pitied."

"I would never pity you."

"You're pitying me right now." Bucky countered. "I recognize that look. And it's pity." Bucky sighed.

"So when did it happen? What happened?"

"Last year-well, late 2013." Bucky said. "You haven't heard me talking about my father."

"No." Sam shook his head.

"My father's dead. He died when I lost my arm."

* * *

><p>The Barnes family are in a hotel in Germany. Bucky's left arm is flesh and blood.<p>

"James, are you ready?" Winifred Barnes asked.

"Yeah, just give me a minute!" Bucky ran into the hotel suite's bedroom grabbed his teddy bear with his left arm.

"I haven't got all day!" Winifred shouted. "We're going back to the States today! You want to see Steve again, don't you?"

"Yeah, Mom! I'm coming!" Bucky came out of the bedroom with his backpack on and clutching his teddy bear.

"You'd never forget Sebastan, would you?" Bucky's father pointed to Bucky's teddy bear.

"No way." Bucky shook his head. "Sebastian is my best friend, along with Steve."

"Alright, let's go home so you can see your best friend and your little sister." Winifred said. "And George, stop encouraging him with that teddy bear."

"He's only 8 years old, Winnie. Let him be a kid." George chuckled as they left the hotel room.

As Bucky's parents checked out in the reception, Bucky played Angry Birds on his father's iPhone.

"Come on, James." George took his son's hand and they walked to the rental car. "Winnie, you coming?"

"Yeah, there's just something I need to do first." Winifred replied. "I left the passports in the safe box at the front desk."

"Do you want us to wait?"

"Nah, Go on without me. I'll call a cab."

* * *

><p>"The last thing I remember is buckling up." Bucky put his head in his hands. "I was in a coma until just before Christmas."<p>

"When did it happen?"

"Halloween."

"You were stuck in Germany all that time?"

"No." Bucky shook his head. "I was moved to the States sometime in mid-November."

"So how did you lose your arm?"

"The metal of the car door ripped through my arm at the shoulder when the car exploded." Bucky said quietly.

"Wow." Sam was speechless.

"When I got back to the States, Phil's father and Jan's mother-who are children's doctors-and Steve's mother-a nurse-looked after me."

"Every time my mother came home during that time, she would break down and cry." Janet said. "I begged to see Bucky. I wish I hadn't."

"Why?"

"Have you ever seen anyone when they've been in a coma before?" Sam shook his head. "I couldn't even see Bucky. It was really upsetting."

"Apparently, when I woke up, I spoke just German."

"You had just come from there."

"As I got more aware, I spoke more English." Bucky looked up at Sam. "I found out about last Valentine's Day that my father had been killed. And about Easter, how bad I was hurt."

"How..."

"Several broken bones, internal bleeding and a bad head injury. Bad enough to give me brain damage and put me in a coma."

"Oh, Bucky..." Sam felt his stomach knot up. He thought he'd had it hard with his father being in the army and worrying about an event that may never happen, but Bucky'd had it way worse-he'd gone through and survived the unthinkable.

"Bucky's mother then went to my dad, Hank's dad and Tony's dad to see if anything could be some about his arm-because they'd already built arms for Misty and Nathan." Janet sat down on a box opposite Bucky. "They came back with that." She pointed at Bucky's metal arm.

"Wow."

"His mother-who didn't want to be coddling him-has been coddling him ever since."

The three kids sat in silence for a while before Bucky spoke up again.

"What time is it?"

Janet looked down at her watch. "It's half 6."

"What do we do then?" Sam asked.

"How about we sing a song?" Janet suggested.

"Alright, Jan. _You_ start."

"_This land is your land, this land is my land_

_From California to the New York islands_

_From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters_

_This land was made for you and me_"

"No, no, no." Sam shook his head. "Woody Guthrie? Come on you can do better than that."

"Oh yeah? You try it then." Janet folded her arms.

"_It's a small world af_-"

"No!" Janet and Bucky shouted together.

"N-no no! Anything but that!" Bucky whined.

"Fine.

_Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah_

_Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah_

_Sister help to trim the sails, hallelujah_..."

"No. Too depressing."

"Well we _have_ just talked about depressing stuff."

"Which is _exactly_ why we need an upbeat song." Janet shrugged. "Bucky. Do you want a go?"

"_Look for the bare necessities_

_The simple bare necessities_

_Forget about your worries and your strife_..." Bucky trailed off

"_I mean the bear necessities_

_Old mother nature's recipes_

_That bring the bare necessities of life_" Janet sang happily.

* * *

><p>The kids spent the rest of the night singing Disney songs and over exaggeratedly performing the actions. The next morning, the kids were found by the janitor and chose not to get Loki into trouble. But they went home with permission from the principal.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I wanted something to break up the Valentine's Day story. This takes place 10 days later, on February the 24th. **

**Bucky's teddy bear IS named after Sebastian Stan. **

**I don't own Loki, Winter Soldier, Falcon or Wasp. Also, Bare Necessities was written by Terry Gilkyson and It's A Small World was written by Robert and Richard Sherman and they belong to Disney and This Land is Your Land was written by Woody Guthrie. **


End file.
